


Adaptation

by Paradoxialhypocrite



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Adult Frisk, Adventure, Angst, Gen, It may not stay for too long (?), POV Second Person, Platonic Relationships, Reader Is Frisk, Story Retelling, The Papyrus/Reader is a single date so far, later slowburn romance?, possible Frisk/Sans later?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-11-07
Updated: 2015-12-06
Packaged: 2018-04-30 10:53:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 22,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5161085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradoxialhypocrite/pseuds/Paradoxialhypocrite
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You were just a child when you fell into the Underground. Only after living under Toriel’s care and protection for ten years do you actually dare to venture beyond the Ruins… Now, you’ve decided, it’s time to go out and face the world. With ten extra years of knowledge and training in the ways of the monsters, you feel more than prepared to take on any challenge. But little do you know just how dangerous the world can be outside the Ruin’s edge…</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Routine

**Author's Note:**

> First fic in YEARS. So hopefully this is good! It's a side project for NaNo so hopefully I can update a few times a week. Got about 2-3 chapters written out now, I'll keep you guys posted! As for the possible romances, it's going to be reeaaaaallllly slowburn if it happens. Right now I think it might hint at some pairings with either Papyrus or Sans, but either way there will be much friendship.

You wake up as you have every day before, to the smell of fresh cooking, the smoky taste of fire magic, and the gentle sound of Froggits murmuring outside your window. The bed that once was intimidatingly large for you is now far too small. A pink quilt is draped at the end up your bed, along with the rest of your sheets. You always had been a bit of a restless sleeper. Your feet dangle off the sides of the mattress, your legs too long to actually fit within its frame. You’ve never really been bothered by it before. Until today, you suppose.

You stand up and stretch, pulling on some clothes from your wardrobe. You don’t have a large variety of clothes, and you’ve never really been afforded the opportunity to change your style. So, you typically just wear shorts and a tee shirt. There’s a mirror in the hallway you use for combing your hair. But it’s usually pretty messy regardless. Years have passed and you still feel like almost nothing has changed with you at all. Time has practically stood still in the Ruins.

The house is bathed in a warm, comforting glow from a multitude of cozy, flickering candles. The floorboards squeak a bit, but you’ve memorized every telltale plank in the house. Let’s just say you got the jump on Santa a few times.

You walk into the living room, popping your head in the kitchen to greet Toriel with a “Good morning, mom!” Toriel turns around and smiles, currently occupied with cooking some omelettes on the stove. Her hands gently conduct small flames underneath the pan. 

“Plans today, Frisk?” She asks, as you sneak a bite of some of the chopped vegetables she had just cut. Everything always tasted so fresh here. Toriel managed a rather expansive garden, and most of your meals were harvested from there. You hadn’t been a fan of gardening as a kid, but you considered it a relaxing activity now.

“Oh, just the normal rounds I suppose,” you say nonchalantly. “I might go stop by the spiders later for a treat. Do you want anything?”

Toriel rolls her eyes with a smile. She hadn’t always been their biggest fan, usually muttering something about their chain of command’s unusual business tactics. “No, I’m fine, dear. You enjoy yourself. It’s a Tuesday again, so I’ll be running out for some errands today. I’ll be back by supper. Could you handle it for me tonight?” Her paws pick up the frying pan, dumping its contents on to a clean, white plate (Most of Toriel’s glasswares were white- it helped hide any of her stray fur). She handed it to you as well as a fork and knife. You happily take the plate from her and sit down at the table nearby. 

“Of course, dinner won’t be a problem,” you beam. “I’ll make us something special! Maybe quiche? I know you like how I make it.” Toriel nods with a smile.

“I like anything you make, dear.”

“Even if it’s burnt?” You tease.

“Especially if it’s burnt!” Toriel exclaims with a mischievous grin.

“How incredibly _cheesy_ of you, mom,” you respond with a laugh. Toriel couldn’t help but laugh back- puns were her ultimate weakness. Sometimes you’d sit together near the fireplace and exchange corny jokes for hours on end. Toriel always seemed to have an unlimited source of horrible puns, and you loved it. She leaves you with a peck on the cheek, grabbing a few of her belongings before saying a quick goodbye and closing the door.

It was a quiet life in the Ruins. You’d gotten used to it. When you first fell down the chasm into the Underground, you had wanted nothing more than some peace and security. After all, the first monster you ever met here tried to have you killed. It kind of left an impression on the kid version of you. But with Toriel’s loving touch, you soon met other kinds of monsters. You learned how to solve puzzles. You learned history, geography, and even a bit of magic (Toriel always said it couldn’t be done by humans, but you had a sneaking suspicion if you concentrated enough, you could form a small flame). And most importantly, you learned to always show mercy.

It had never felt cramped down here, just cozy. The Ruins had plenty of secret passageways and tunnels for any fine explorer. The inhabitants were harmless and sociable. You made friends with a ghost- Blooky- who still came to visit every few days. But today… Well, no. Don’t lie to yourself. For the last few _months_ you had felt… trapped. It wasn’t that you didn’t love Toriel- oh no, you cared for her very much. But, there was a part of you that ached to see the famed landscapes of Waterfall. The quaint, small town of Snowdin. Even the grandiose shows Mettaton put on in Hotland. 

Toriel didn’t want you leaving the Ruins. And you understood that. At least, for when you were a kid. But you were grown up now. You could handle a little adventure. You were tall and strong and your soul was pure. That’s what Toriel always said about you before tucking you into bed at night.

Toriel told you, when you were a kid, that some monsters don’t age until they have kids. Their children grow by consuming the parents life force. Eventually, the parents pass on and their child is fully realized as an adult. You always knew Toriel had a child before you… it wasn’t just the toys and books and bed… Sometimes you went into her room, just for curiosity’s sake. You had seen pictures in an old scrapbook and several picture frames tucked away. All of them featured a small child, similar in appearance to Toriel, always with a shy smile on his face. The only explanation you could think of was that the child must have died. Consequently, she must have stopped aging a long time ago… maybe hundreds of years ago.

You could swear though, if you looked hard enough, that Toriel had a few more wrinkles on her face than she did when you first met her.

It was a nice thought, at least.

 

—

 

With a sigh, you left the house. You didn’t need to lock the door in the Ruins. There wasn’t a single stranger to you here. You decided to stop by the spider bake sale after all, though that was mostly just an excuse you gave to Toriel for when you wanted to leave the house. You exchanged a few coins for some donuts, which you carefully tucked into your satchel for later. The spiders all gave you an eight-armed wave as you left.

Where were you going? You didn’t quite know. Out. Out of the Ruins? Maybe. But there was only one way out that you knew of. And that was in your basement. 

_…Maybe…_ No. You weren’t sure you could actually go through with it and leave. And definitely not on a whim! Sure, you wanted adventure! To actually experience some of the glorious things you’d read about. But… you were genuinely happy here. Safe. Loved. All you had wanted as a kid was a life like the one you had now.

Sometimes, when you fell asleep at night, you’d dream of a golden flower like the first one you’d ever met. It’d always mock you. Mock you for your isolation in the Ruins. Your refusal to progress. _“STOP STANDING STILL AND MOVE ON ALREADY!”_ it’d scream, until its eyes bulged. You’d wake up in a cold sweat. 

You never told Toriel. But you were sure she still knew…

-

You blink and you’re suddenly standing on the staircase, looking at the basement below. Your hands clutch your satchel determinedly. Somehow it’s full of provisions and a few of your most useful reference books. You’re not sure how you got here, or how this bag was seemingly packed for you. You glance around nervously. 

Sure, you’ve gone down into the basement before. When Toriel wasn’t home you liked to look at the door at the end of the hallway. You knew the rest of the Underground lay out there. It was so close.

But you couldn’t ever bring yourself to go out there.

-

You shake your head, almost as if to wake yourself from sleep. 

You’re sitting cross-legged in front of the stone-arched door. Your eyes gaze upon it enviously. _…Maybe…_ maybe it wouldn’t hurt just to look. 

Before you know it, your hand is on the doorknob and you’re starting to twist it open. Your life is operating in brief flashes and thoughts now. The door opens just a tiny crack and wind howls through, chilling you to the bone. Right. _Snow_ din. And you still forgot a jacket. Some master-researcher you were.

“Frisk?” A voice echoes through the hallway. Your eyes widen and you turn around, caught in the act. Guilty.

Toriel stares at you, at first unmoving, but when you meet her gaze she begins to walk towards you. “Oh Frisk…” she says softly.

“I-I’m sorry, mom,” you stammer at first, your hands falling to your sides, the door still whispering to you. Tears start to form in your eyes as you finally come to your senses. You were really about to do it… You would have left the Ruins- and Toriel- for who knows how long? And why? What was out there that you wanted to see so much?

“I knew you wouldn’t stay forever, dear.” Toriel laughed to herself for a moment. “To be honest, I’m surprised you even stayed this long in the first place. I know… I know your destiny is to go. Meet Asgore. Leave this place. I… I couldn’t help but be selfish for a while.” She was just a few feet away now. She placed a hand on your shoulder, letting your eyes rise to meet hers. “My child… I have been blessed to take care of you for ten years. But you’ve learned so much. It’s unkind of me to keep you any longer now.”

“You… You want me to go?”

“I don’t _want_ you to go, dear Frisk,” she sighs. “I know what happens to children who leave the Ruins. But you are not a child anymore, and I’ve done my best to train you to take on the outside world. It’s not right of me to isolate you any more.” Deep breaths. You’re pressed into her in a big hug. “I just ask you one last thing.”

“Of course, mom,” you reply, your eyes growing watery. A tear rolls down your face. You didn’t… You didn’t expect her to let you go like this. Obviously she had grown up far more than you ever had.

“I want you to call me, dear one. Please call me as much as you can. Stay safe. And…” She kissed the top of your head. “…remember what I taught you.”

You say the last words with her, “It is far stronger to show mercy than hatred.”

And with that, you take your first step out the door. Your first step out of the Ruins. Your first real step into the Underground.


	2. Visions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so I didn't intend to post anything new until at least Monday, but I was writing and I just felt I really wanted to post this now! I felt it was justified because it's pretty short. Thank you for all the kudos! I really appreciate all the support!

…It wasn’t Snowdin. You realize this almost immediately after closing the door. Instead you find yourself in a narrow corridor similar to the others in the basement. The air certainly is colder than the rest of the house, accounting for the draft you had felt earlier. The hallway seems to stretch on forever. Even as you’re moving forward, the tiny door at its end seems entirely stationary. You panic for a brief second as you remember you’re about to walk into Snowdin without a jacket… But then as you look down, it seems Toriel had tied one around your waist.

You shrug it on, glad for a little extra protection against the weather, though the jacket still seems too thin to do very much. Also, blankets? Tents? Sleeping bags? Your small satchel certainly didn’t hold any form of shelter. You’d have to head to Snowdin as quickly as you could. Though the Underground didn’t really have a “day and night” due to the complete absence of a sun, they did stick to waking and sleeping hours. You really should have thought this through more… it was the early afternoon and Snowdin was several miles walk away. You could only hope you didn’t run into any obstacles along the way.

Finally, only after an appropriate length of time to think, does the door finally reach you. You step through with a confident air, officially ready to leave the Ruins. 

…It still wasn’t Snowdin.

You stood in a room that was completely dark. A single spotlight shone on the ground, illuminating a small patch of grass… and a golden flower. 

You immediately tense. This was it. This was the same flower you had met your first day in the Ruins, and you were sure it was the same one that invaded your dreams at night. Your smile breaks. 

The only way out is past it. You have to keep going. Maybe if you ignored it, stepped around it, it would leave you alone.

Wishful thinking.

The flower suddenly warped to have a face and immediately began to glare at you. “It’s not nice to keep your old pal Flowey waiting,” it said in far too cheery of a voice. “Ten years without hearing from you, Chara. I was starting to get _… worried_.” The way it said worried sent shivers down your spine. It grew a maniacal smile, baring sharp teeth. You didn’t know why it called you Chara… You could have sworn the name was familiar to you, but you couldn’t put a finger on it.

You fumble around for something to say to it, but what exactly _does_ one say to a sentient yellow flower that’s been haunting your dreams? Ah right, perhaps, “Why have you been haunting my dreams?”

Flowey began to laugh. Once again, it was an unpleasant experience. “How else was I supposed to get you to leave the Ruins? You seemed so happy, Chara. I had to make things a little less happy. And it worked, didn’t it?”

“W-Why was it so important that I leave the Ruins?” Your voice is barely a whisper in the cavern. Standing here, looking at your old enemy, made you feel like a scared, lost child again. But Toriel wasn’t here to save you now. You had to face this on your own.

“You really think you could ever live down here?” The flower mocked. “You don’t belong in the Underground. You’ve always been meant to go fight Asgore. The real question is… are you really gonna be able to keep up your pure, innocent act once you’ve left your precious Toriel? Or will you finally kill? Food for thought,” Flowey finally chimed, before shooting itself back down into the ground.

You run to the patch of grass where it had first been standing, but there wasn’t a sign of it. Inside your stomach you felt nothing but fear.

What had you gotten yourself into?


	3. Frigid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beginning of our Snowdin chapters! Sans and Papyrus are a pretty big part of this retelling, so expect these chapters to run pretty long compared to the future Waterfall/Hotland ones! Although these next few chapters will stick pretty closely to the in-game dialogue and options, very soon things are going to turn out different. But I won't be giving anything away. Enjoy the beginning of pun hell, children.

The countryside near Snowdin sure was… cold. Blankets of snow covered the ground, and all around you were tall, looming pine trees. You realize, in between shivers, that the Ruins really didn’t experience _any_ sort of weather. Year round, the Ruins kept themselves at a crisp 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Your body had adjusted itself to a cushy lifestyle and you weren’t exactly prepared for this… more extreme weather. Although, that being said, you _were_ fairly in shape, so the walking aspect shouldn’t be too difficult all things considered. 

Another gust of wind hits you like a brick wall and you almost fall over from its force. The jacket was _definitely_ too thin. But… no. You weren’t going to let yourself complain only five minutes after your journey had just begun! You are determined!

You glance behind you. The door to the Ruins is shut. Toriel never told you that you _couldn’t_ come back, but you felt it wasn’t exactly encouraged either. It was time for the bird to leave the nest. You’d probably land on your own two feet. Probably.

You wondered when was too early to give her a call.

Feeling slightly discouraged by the distance to New Home, you stop walking for a few seconds. Behind you, you swear you can hear a branch breaking. Your head whips around to see… nothing. The only sound comes from the rustling of the nearby tree branches. You still feel a little unnerved from your earlier encounter with Flowey. How far away was Snowdin again? You weren’t exactly looking forward to the prospect of sleeping outside in the snow. You pick up the pace.

There it was again- footsteps, or something similar at least! Your head darts back and forth and in your peripheral vision something flashes. 

“Probably just a harmless monster,” you reassure yourself. “What kinds are native to this region again?” You think about pulling out your encyclopedia (oh yes, you made sure to pack _that_ but not a tent), but decide against it. Stopping to read wouldn’t get you to shelter any sooner. You bounce ideas off the top of your head, “Er, there’s Icecaps and Gyftrots…. What else?” Though monsters were obviously free to live wherever they pleased, many types of monsters had settled in geographic locations. As you’re thinking, you approach what looks to be a bridge with a … gate? Could you even call that a gate? There were huge gaps large enough for you to walk through. Was someone honestly trying to keep people out? People from the _Ruins?_ Didn’t they know nothing harmful lived there? _Except flowers, obviously._

Alright, now you knew you weren’t going crazy- those definitely were footsteps!! You freeze, noticing them getting closer and closer. Finally, whatever has been following you seemed to be right behind you. 

“Human,” a voice says, their tone oddly detached. You couldn’t picture what manner of creature would possess such a voice. “Don’t you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand.”

Slowly, as if not to startle the voice, you turn, coming face to face with … a skeleton? The stranger was wearing a dark blue jacket, black basketball shorts, and… pink fuzzy slippers. He extends out a hand and you take it warily. You immediately hear the sound of… a… fart. Your face scrunches up in confusion as the skeleton immediately begins to laugh. “the old woopie cushion in the hand trick. its ALWAYS funny.” His voice had changed into something you’d consider almost humorous of itself. Or would that be _humerus?_

“anyways, you’re a human, right?” he grins. “that’s hilarious. i’m sans. sans the skeleton.” To be quite honest, you had no idea skeletons were even native to this part of the Underground. Well… they probably weren’t. Sans seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. You give him a small smile in return.

“I’m, er… Frisk,” you say. You’d shake his hand but that didn’t seem like the best idea to try again. 

“nice to meet you, _er_ frisk,” the skeleton jokes. You begin to protest, but soon realize it’d likely be in vain.

“You’ve got a real funny bone, huh?” You reply with a wry grin. If anything, Toriel had taught you well in the art of making puns. This guy… kinda reminded you of her. You heart panged. Standards be darned, you’d call her by tomorrow. You already missed her far too much.

“hah, nice one kid. i think i’ll like you. and come to think of it, i actually _am_ supposed to be on watch for humans right now. but… y’know… i don’t really care about capturing anybody.” Sans shrugs as if it were the simplest concept in the world. 

“Capturing humans? Why?” You ask with a frown. And a bit of a shiver. But that was mostly from the cold, not the impending sense of doom about possibly having a bounty on your head. 

“you know about the whole ‘human souls are powerful and can exit through the barrier thing’ right?” Ah right, come to think of it, Toriel _had_ mentioned that only a human soul could actually get through the barrier. Which was why you had to go to the Capital to leave. “well if you were to get seven, you can break the barrier entirely and all the monsters in the underground could go free.”

“Ah,” you say curtly. It was then that you realized that _yes_ , everything in the Underground _would_ probably want to kill you and take your soul. Things suddenly seemed a lot more grim than they had a few moments before.

“i don’t really care about it either way. But now my brother, papyrus, he’s a human hunting FANATIC. actually… i think that’s him over there. i have an idea… go through this gate thingy-”

“-It’s not much of a gate, is it?” You ask. “You can kinda walk through it.”

“my brother made it a bit too wide,” he explains. “but you’ve got to admire his enthusiasm. now, quick, hide behind that conveniently shaped lamp.” Sure enough, when you turned to look, there was a rather large lamp sitting off to the side in the clearing. You duck behind it, marveling at the fact it could conceal your features near perfectly. When you look around, you see a sentry station that you guess must be Sans’. There are bottles of ketchup, mustard, and other condiments laying on top of it. When you think about meeting him in the first place, it doesn’t make much sense… Sans had approached you from behind, yet his sentry station was far up here. How had he gotten over the bridge without you seeing him? Did… did he hear you coming through the door and quickly hide or something? Or maybe he was just on his smoke break at the time. Did skeletons smoke? 

A tall, lanky skeleton bursts on to the scene, frantically walking towards where Sans was standing. Your eyes widen a little. This skeleton, though Sans had said he was out to capture you, gave off an air of …silliness? Could this monster really want to steal your soul? 

“’sup bro?’ Sans says casually, somehow leaning against thin air. His casual attitude seemed to annoy his brother to no end.

“YOU KNOW WHAT’S ‘SUP’ BROTHER? IT’S BEEN EIGHT DAYS AND YOU STILL HAVEN’T… RECALIBRATED. YOUR. PUZZLES.” The skeleton, Papyrus was his name if you remembered correctly?, was very… loud. And very exclamatory. And he certainly loved his hand gestures. You snuck a quick peak out from behind your lamp to catch a better glimpse at him. He had on a piece of shiny metallic armor, a red flowing cape, and blue shorts. As well as a winning smile and a twinkle in his eye. “YOU JUST HANG OUT AROUND YOUR STATION!” He continues his rant. “WHAT ARE YOU EVEN DOING?!?”

Sans grins. “staring at this lamp. it’s really cool. do you wanna look?” Your eye twitches. Was he trying to give you away?? You duck your head back behind the lampshade with a sharp inhale.

“NO!!” Papyrus exclaimed. You breathe a sigh of relief. “I DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THAT! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE?? I MUST BE READY! I’VE WAITED HERE FOR YEARS!! I WILL BE THE ONE! I MUST BE THE ONE! I WILL CAPTURE A HUMAN! THAN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS… WILL GET ALL THE THINGS I SO UTTERLY DESERVE!” Yep, if you weren’t sure of his name before, you were now. He certainly spoke in third person. Oddly enough, you didn’t find yourself annoyed by it. It was just… incredibly dorky. “RESPECT… RECOGNITION… I WILL FINALLY BE ABLE TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD! PEOPLE WILL ASK, TO, BE MY, “FRIEND?” … I WILL BATHE IN A SHOWER OF KISSES EVERY MORNING.” You snorted and almost gave yourself away.

“hm…” Sans says, taking it all in. “maybe this lamp will help you.” Ah. Now you understood. This skeleton was just a horrible troll. He didn’t mean you any harm as far as you could tell. And seeing as they were stationed right outside the locked door of the Ruins, they probably never saw anyone new. It would be good to provide them some excitement. As long as that excitement didn’t include your untimely death.

“SANS!! YOU ARE NOT HELPING!! YOU LAZYBONES!!” From the sound of it, Papyrus was proceeding to stomp angrily on the ground. “ALL YOU DO IS SIT AND BOONDOGLE! YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY!!!”

“hey, take it easy. i’ve gotten a ton of work done today…” he pauses. “a _skele_ -ton.” You could almost hear the ‘ba-dum-tiss.’ Toriel would probably love this guy. You couldn’t help but like him too. 

His brother clearly didn’t appreciate the artistry of a good pun. “SANS!!!”

“come on. you’re smiling.”

“I AM AND I HATE IT.” Papyrus sighs. And by that, you meant he actually audibly said the word ‘sigh.’ “WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME… HAVE TO DO SO MUCH FOR SOME RECOGNITION…”

“wow,” Sans replies. “sounds like you’re really working yourself… _down to the bone_.” He was on a roll. A drumroll that is. His brother only grew more frustrated. Honestly the interaction between the two was entertaining enough on its own.

“UGH!!! I WILL ATTEND TO MY PUZZLES. AS FOR YOUR WORK… PUT A LITTLE MORE _BACKBONE_ INTO IT!!!!!!!” Papyrus was clearly pleased with his comeback as he began to run off, laughing the entire time with a distinct “NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!”. You swear he was gone as you start to stand up, but you hear one final “HEH!” from the distance.

“alright, you can come out now,” Sans says. When you emerged, he had his hands casually in his pockets. “you ought to get going. he might come back. and if he does, you’ll have to sit through more of my hilarious jokes.” Honestly, it didn’t seem like too bad of an idea. 

“He doesn’t seem so horrible,” you say with a smile. “He doesn’t want to take my soul, does he?”

“honestly papyrus wouldn’t want to hurt a fly. he just wants approval from someone other than me, i think.” You nod in understanding. How many times had you tried to impress Toriel? From baking the perfect butterscotch-cinnamon pie to dodging every attack she threw at you during combat practice, you had always striven to do your best for her. 

The wind picks up again and you involuntarily shiver. Crouching down behind the lamp for a few minutes had left your joints stiff and your feet cold from sludging through the snow. You really, really wished you had long pants. 

“here, pal. i think you need this more than this old bag of bones does.” Sans quickly takes off his jacket and hands it to you. Underneath he wore a simple white tee shirt.

“Are you sure? I-I don’t want to inconvenience you-”

“i don’t have skin, kid. it’s really fine. i can’t have my new friend freezing to death before they even get to snowdin. you can give it back to me when you reach the town. and hey, if you feel really bad about it, we’ll just say you owe me one, okay?”

You exhale, your breath coming out as a fog in the cold air. Well, you weren’t going to turn it down for now. You pull on the jacket, impressed by its warmth. “Thanks, Sans.”

You bid Sans goodbye, almost certain you’ll see him again soon. If his brother has anything to do with it. 

Right before you leave the clearing, Sans stops you. “actually, hey. hate to bother ya, but… i just thought of a use for that favor you owe me.” He winks at you with a shrug, “i was thinking… my brother’s been kinda down lately… he’s never seen a human before. and seeing you might just make his day. can I ask you to just… play along with his puzzles? thanks a million. i’ll be up ahead,” he says finally, giving you a wave without even waiting for your answer. Before walking back towards the entrance to the Ruins. The opposite way of where he probably should be going. You… you really couldn’t explain what was going on with that skeleton. Going on this journey… it was supposed to be an adventure. And what was more adventurous than these two? Well, truthfully, probably a lot. But they certainly seemed more fun than the other monsters that you grew up with.

Your feet are tired. And your stomach is growling. But you bundle yourself up as well as you can manage, and keep walking. There’s a clearing up ahead and you feel something peculiar within you. For the first time in a long time, you’ve overcome with a deep sense of determination. Nothing could possibly stop you, you think to yourself. Forget the feeling of being watched. Forget the strange teleporting skeleton and his overeager brother. You had a mission to accomplish, and you were going to accomplish it.


	4. Puzzles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for your continued support! I'm really flattered that people are liking the story! There are still a few more Snowdin related chapters to go, and plenty of more puns! The next chapter will probably be up this weekend!

You call Toriel. She picks up midway through the first ring. 

“Frisk! I wasn’t expecting you to call so soon!” She exclaims. Her voice betrays her though- she sounds extremely happy to hear from you. You smile through the phone. It’d be hard leaving her behind, but knowing she’s just a call away gives you strength. “Are you alright?”

“A little chilly, mom,” you laugh. “But thank you for giving me the jacket. I’d probably be just a human icicle without it… I’ve already met some new monsters,” you add. You decide to refrain from talking about Flowey. Toriel had encountered the strange flower before, of course, but you couldn’t help but keep your latest confrontation to yourself. Everything that flower had said set you on edge. “Two skeletons, actually. They seem quite nice!”

“R-really?” Toriel stammers. “Skeletons.” She says it a bit wistfully. Obviously she knows something you don’t. But that’s pretty much how your relationship has been. She was always hiding something from you. Perhaps she believed she was protecting you from something.

“Oh yeah, I think you’d like one of them. He keeps on telling these absolutely horrible puns, just like you always tell me.” There’s a sharp intake of breath on the other end of the phone. “You okay, mom?”

“I, uh… Yes, of course!” She says finally, her tone reassuring. “It’s great that you’ve made some new friends. Has the skeleton been treating you well?” It seemed an odd question to ask, but you answer anyway.

“Um, yeah actually. He lent me his jacket so I wouldn’t get too cold.” You snuggle a bit into the hood. It’s warm.

“That’s good to hear. I’d say he’s going _tibia_ good pal,” she teases and you both burst into laughter. That was the Toriel you knew and loved. “Well, dear, you should probably keep going ahead. I wouldn’t want you to be out after dark like this, especially not in a snowstorm. But thank you for calling me. I really appreciate it, my child.”

“I’ll call you once I reach Snowdin. Love you mom!”

“Love you too, Frisk.” Click.

Speaking with Toriel fills you with determination and you press onwards. To the north there’s a gently flowing river. An abandoned fishing rod lays on the side of the bank, old and rusted. You reel it in to find a soggy piece of paper. Where there once was ink, only smudges appear now. You cast it back into the stream anyway. Maybe they were trying to catch a _book_ worm? Okay, that one was horrible, you’d admit it.

As you backtrack towards the main path, you spot monsters up ahead. Before you can get too worried, you recognize Sans and Papyrus. They seem to be deep in conversation with one another, and you hear Papyrus declare, “SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE-” You recognized the name immediately from some of the newspapers Toriel had laying around. Undyne was the head of the Royal Guard for the entire Underground. You supposed that she had to be who Papyrus was trying so hard to impress.

Evidently the skeletons heard you approaching and all conversation ceased as they turned to look at you. In an almost comical manner, Papyrus spun around to look back at his brother, then back to you, then back to his brother… this went on for such a long time you couldn’t help but laugh into your jacket sleeve. Finally, the skeletons turned their backs to you, as you overheard Papyrus say (in what he must have considered a whisper) “SANS!!! OH MY GOD!! IS THAT… A HUMAN????!”

“uh…” Sans frowns. “actually, I think that’s a rock.” You turn around to see a rather large stone a few feet behind you.

Papyrus looks disappointed. “OH,” he says, his spirits considerably dampened.

You clear your throat expectantly. This catches his attention and he snaps out of his funk. 

“WAIT A SECOND… SANS… WHAT IS THAT IN _FRONT_ OF THE ROCK?? CAN IT BE… A HUMAN???!!!”

Sans grins. “yes.”

“OH MY GOD!!!” Papyrus was excitedly dancing around at this point and you’re smiling like an idiot. Sans was right, his brother was elated to meet you. And well, if you thought he could have been dangerous before, you knew he was harmless now. “SANS! I FINALLY DID IT!! UNDYNE WILL… I’M GONNA… I’LL BE SO… POPULAR! POPULAR!! POPULAR!!!” He catches his breath for a moment before exclaiming, “AHEM. HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU!! I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU WILL BE DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL! THEN!! THEN… I’M ACTUALLY NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.”

So Sans was right yet again. His brother had no idea about the whole ‘stealing your soul’ thing. You decide at this exact moment that Papyrus needed to be protected from the harsh realities of the Underground. Papyrus was too far gone in his own world to be paying much attention to this one.

“IN ANY CASE… CONTINUE… IF YOU DARE!!!!” Papyrus runs off, cackling. 

Now it was just you and Sans. His perpetual smile is directed at you now. “well, that went well. thanks, frisk. and don’t sweat it. i’ll be keeping an eyesocket out for ya.” And with that, the skeleton winks and walks off.

-

Up ahead you see a messily constructed sentry station. You wonder if there’s more scattered along the way to Snowdin. If so, you might just luck out on a place to sleep, should you get tired. The shed isn’t in the best condition, the years of snow and rain damage had left their mark. Though it looks like it wasn’t even that nice when it was first built. Maybe you wouldn’t want to stay there after all…

As you continue down the path you run across a young monster who introduces himself as a Snowdrake. It didn’t take you very long to learn he wanted to do nothing more than tell jokes for a living. You laugh and exchange a few puns before parting ways. But before you go, he tells you to watch out for guard stations up ahead. And, sure enough, as you move a little further up the road, you find another sentry booth. A sign nearby warns you that there’s _ABSOLUTELY NO MOVING ALLOWED!!_

The little hut seems abandoned at first glance, with a small, dingy bell set on top of it. Perhaps if you were quiet you could sneak past? But as soon as you take a step, a dog’s head shoots up and looks around. You immediately freeze in place. 

“Did something move? Was it my imagination?” The dog asks itself quietly. “I can only see moving things,” it adds, as if you needed a little more exposition. You silently thank the dog for its subconscious sincerity. “Now. If something WAS moving… for example, a human… I’ll make sure it never moves again!!”

And with that exclamation, your soul is pulled from your body and you come face to face with the guard. He declares his name to be Doggo before blowing a rather large bubble of gum. He’s holding a sword in each hand, and glances around, waiting for you to move. The air reeks of strawberry kiwi. 

“Don’t move an inch,” he says, squinting his eyes. A large light blue sword swings towards your soul, and you fight off the urge to dodge it. Sure enough, by standing completely still, you avoid taking damage. You had read about special attacks in one of the books in Toriel’s library, but you’d never actually experienced any of them. You were a bit nervous when you thought about it. There were so many unknowns... However, should the time ever come for you to need it, you were absolutely _fantastic_ at dodging fireballs.

His attack stops and you quickly think of something to do while you had the chance. Dogs like to be pet, right? You stop to give Doggo an affectionate scratch on the head, seriously hoping that this isn’t some horrible breach of personal space. At once he begins to bark excitedly. “I’VE BEEN PET!!” Doggo exclaims, hopping from paw to paw. This seems to appease him and you duck out of the battle, tugging your soul back into your body.

You move rather cautiously for a few paces before breaking out into a run into the next part of the road. You blink and Sans is suddenly standing in front of you. 

“hey kid,” he grins. “i see you’ve met doggo.”

“Funny guy,” you reply. “What’s with the bubblegum?” you ask, your nose still clogged with the sickly sweet smell.

“heh, he used to smoke dog treats until papyrus managed to convince him it was unhealthy. he’s been trying to get into gum to break the habit.” The way Sans said this was extremely comical to you, and you can’t help but snicker. “anyway, don’t forget those blue attacks you just saw. my brother also has a very special attack. and as long as you're standing still, blue attacks won't hurt you. think of it as a stop sign. but blue.”

“Got it, Sansy. I mean, it's not like this was my first encounter with monsters,” you say rather nonchalantly. "I'm pretty good at avoiding attacks."

“…did you really just call me ‘sansy’?” 

You blush. “What? Was it not very _humerus_?”

Sans groans. “i’ve got a real _bone_ to pick with you, frisk.” You stare intently at each other for a minute before both of you burst out laughing. “i’ll see you soon.” He finally says, giving you a wink as you walk off.

A few minutes later, you find a snowman. Or at least, you ...thought it was a snowman. It really appeared to be more of an abstract lump of snow. When you talked to it, it told you of its mission to see the world, and how, over the last several years, it had been slowly flattening itself so it could better travel about. You propose that you could instead just take a little piece of it with you on your journey, and the speed at which the snowman agrees is really rather astounding. You open your satchel to find a small, empty jar, which you then fill with a tiny piece of the snowman.

Up ahead was none other than your two new closest pals. You started to wonder exactly how many stops there’d be along the way. You didn’t exactly have all day. “YOU’RE SO LAZY!!” Papyrus was beginning to rant, standing across from a large square patch of dirt from you. “YOU WERE NAPPING ALL NIGHT!”

“i think that’s called… sleeping.”

“EXCUSES, EXCUSES!”

You immediately burst out laughing, and Papyrus swivels to meet you, “OH HO! THE HUMAN ARRIVES!” he cackles. But before he can continue, he frowns. “SANS… WHY IS THE HUMAN WEARING YOUR JACKET?”

Oh right. You guess Papyrus had been in too much of a shock earlier to examine your outfit, but now it was pretty clear that you were borrowing his brother’s jacket. Would Sans get in trouble for helping you? Papyrus turns to his brother who merely smiles in response.

“Ah,” you say with a bit of a nervous cough. Time to think of a good spin on the situation. “Your brother didn’t want me to ...freeze before you… before you could capture me!” You offer with an unconvincing grin.

Papyrus seems to accept this. “WHAT A SURPRISINGLY GOOD IDEA, SANS! I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M SAYING THIS, BUT… GOOD WORK!.”

“aw thanks bro.”

“BUT YOU’RE STILL LAZY.” Papyrus clears his throat. “NOW, HUMAN, WE HAVE PREPARED A SERIES OF DASTARDLY PUZZLES FOR YOU TO SOLVE IN ORDER TO CONTINUE YOUR JOURNEY HERE. AND THIS ONE IN PARTICULAR, I THINK YOU WILL FIND… QUITE SHOCKING!! FOR THIS IS… THE INVISIBLE… ELECTRICITY MAZE!!”

“Er, O Great Papyrus,” you raise your voice. “No offense to your immaculately crafted puzzles, but I really would like to reach Snowdin before the night is up… Just so I don’t… have to sleep outside.”

“DO NOT FEAR, HUMAN, YOU WILL BE IN SNOWDIN BY YOUR BEDTIME, I ASSURE YOU. BUT _DO_ FEAR THIS PUZZLE!! FOR WHEN YOU TOUCH THE WALLS OF THE MAZE, THIS ORB," He held up a small, glowing sphere, "-WILL ADMINISTER QUITE A HEARTY ZAP! SOUND LIKE FUN???” You assume this is a rhetorical question. “BECAUSE! THE AMOUNT OF FUN YOU WILL PROBABLY BE HAVING… IS ACTUALLY RATHER SMALL I THINK.” He adjusts his cape somewhat awkwardly before giving you a wave, “YOU CAN START NOW.”

“Um… I’m not quite sure how this works exactly… But shouldn’t I be the one holding the orb?” you ask. After living in the Ruins for ten years, you had learned one very important thing: monsters really, _really_ took their puzzles seriously. You’d hate for Papyrus’ plans to be foiled, or for him to be hurt by overlooking something. Besides, you were practically an expert on solving such puzzles. You probably wouldn’t get shocked that badly even if you messed up. Sans gives you an odd look.

Papyrus gasps, “WHY HUMAN, YOU ARE TOTALLY CORRECT! HOW OBSERVANT OF YOU! HERE,” he says, quickly walking through the maze to hand you the orb. But as he walks, his boots leave footprints in the snow, showing you the correct path. It seemed karma was watching out for your good deed. He tosses you the orb (which didn’t really seem safe to do) with a “HERE, HOLD THIS PLEASE!” The orb lands squarely on your head, and a bead of sweat drops down your forehead.

You were great at walking. Really. But balancing? That was a whole different story. You manage to retrace the skeleton’s steps, occasionally needing to stop to adjust the orb. Though, sure enough, you made it to the other side without a single shock. “INCREDIBLE!” Papyrus beams. “NOT ONLY IS THIS HUMAN INCREDIBLY PERCEPTIVE AND KIND, BUT A MASTER PUZZLE SOLVER TO BOOT! BUT BE WARNED, HUMAN. THE NEXT PUZZLE SHALL NOT BE SO EASY! IT IS DESIGNED BY NONE OTHER THAN MY BROTHER, SANS! WHO… YOU HAVE CLEARLY MET BEFORE,” he adds, still giving your jacket a wary look. “ANYWAY, YOU WILL CERTAINLY BE CONFOUNDED! I KNOW I AM!” With this, Papyrus begins laughing while dashing off ahead. For like the third time now. 

“Your brother really likes the whole dramatic exit thing, doesn’t he?” You ask Sans with a snicker.

“yeah, he’s pretty cool, right?” The way Sans genuinely admires his brother warms your heart.

“He really is,” you reply. “But I have to ask… how many puzzles are left?”

“eh, maybe four or five more,” he shrugs. This seems like a disproportionately high number of puzzles for what should have been a simple walk to Snowdin.

“we’ve been down here for years waiting for a human. i can’t quite get you out of doing these now. but you’ll solve ‘em no problem. and thanks. for playing along so well. my brother really seems happy for the first time in a while.” Sans looks down wistfully for a second and you swear there’s a glimmer of a tear in one of his eyesockets. But in a flash, he looks back up at you with his trademark grin. “do you like the outfit he’s wearing? we made one a few years back for a costume party, and he’s been obsessed with it ever since. calls it his ‘battle body.’”

“Heh, it's just like a real suit of amour. He really wants to be in the Royal Guard, doesn’t he?”

“it’s been his dream since we were kids,” Sans admits with a shrug.

You press onwards, Papyrus’ never-ending passion filling you with determination.


	5. Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Here's the next installment of our story! It's by FAR the longest chapter yet, but it gets a lot of stuff jam packed in there! It's also the last of my buffer chapters, so unless I can really get to writing, I may have to update more sparingly. Also, at some point later in the story I may move this up to a T rating for some language/minor violence that might happen. I'll keep you posted, but if it changes, it'll probably be around Undyne.

 

As you enter the next clearing, you immediately notice an abandoned cart off to the side of the road. You stop to investigate. You can’t help but be intrigued by its brightly painted (but chipped) siding. As you get closer, though, you notice it _isn’t_ quite abandoned. A rather disheveled looking bunny monster was huddled behind it, picking absentmindedly at his fingernails. 

“Uh, excuse me?” You call out. His ears perk up as he slowly stands to his feet. “Are… are you selling something?” You ask. You figure that there was once some text or a picture on the side of the cart, but now it was nothing more than a series of scratches.

He seems to find this amusing. “I’d say I was, but seeing as nothing’s actually sold in years… I’m really just wasting my time here it seems. But it’s not like I have anything better to do anyway.” He frowns for a second and mumbles something you can barely make out to be “…and I also live in this cart.”

You immediately feel sympathy for the monster. And the way his floppy ears hung limply didn’t help. “Well, what’s your product? Maybe I could buy something from you!” You suggest. A smile appears on his face and his previously limp ears shot up. 

“Really?? I’m… I’m selling Nicecream!” He declares. “It’s the ice cream that’s also your friend! A smile in every bite! A compliment for every occasion! A-”

“Alright, alright,” you laugh. “You don’t need to say anything more, I’ll buy some! How much do you have?” You check your satchel to see the state of your gold reserves. You had been saving your weekly allowance from Toriel for ten years, leaving you with a rather large chunk of change. You wanted to conserve most of it for inns and the like, but it wouldn’t hurt to spend a bit here, would it?

“I’ve got six left right now. They’re 15G each!”

You’ve got more than enough gold in your purse to accommodate him, and you exchange goods happily. “Thanks!” You say, tucking the packaged cones into your bag for later.

“No, no! Thank _you_ , kind stranger! Thanks to you I can move my cart elsewhere! To brighter skies, perhaps!” He’s starting to sound delirious with joy as you leave. 

You keep walking forward until you recognize a familiarly shaped blob on the horizon. It was Sans again. Why would you even expect anything different at this point? He seemed to be turning up at every corner and offshooting branch. You were fully convinced now that he had to be able to teleport or something. There was no other explanation for how he seemed to jump ahead of you at every opportunity. The real question was _why?_ Why did he seem so determined to watch out for you? You remember your earlier call to Toriel and you start to wonder if they know each other.

“Hey, Sans,” you call out. “You wouldn’t want a Nicecream, would you?” 

“hey, i’m not one to turn down free ice cream,” he replies with a shrug, taking one of the cones you offer. It takes you about five licks to realize that eating ice cream in the middle of a snow-laden forest isn’t the wisest idea. And also that skeletons, due to their lack of tongues, probably can’t even eat ice cream in the first place. Nevertheless, when you take your attention off your cone to look at Sans, his ice cream cone is gone. 

You quickly look around him, suspecting that he might have tossed it somewhere. He catches your curiosity and grins. “kid, don’t try to understand how we skeletons eat food. it’ll just confuse you more,” Sans said with a chuckle. “but, man, this sure was an _ice_ treat. so thanks, frisk.”

“ _Snow_ problem,” you reply, raising your eyebrows. You give the cone another lick, and by the time you turn back to Sans, he’s gone yet again. You shake your head. Of course.

—

While you were sure it would be nice to further explore the Snowdin countryside, you really just didn’t have the time. Several pathways you ignored on your walk, promising yourself that maybe someday you could come back. After a good night’s sleep. And after you bought some nicer pants to frolic in the snow with. Your knees were cold. 

 

The next time you run into Sans and Papyrus, they’re standing in an empty clearing. Or… almost empty clearing. In front of them is a sheet of paper. “AH, THERE YOU ARE HUMAN,” Papyrus says. His tone is cheerful and you can tell he’s really starting to enjoy running into you. He puts his hands on his hips and declares, “AS YOU CAN SEE, THIS NEXT PUZZLE IS QUI- …SANS!!! _WHERE’S THE PUZZLE???_ ”

Sans chuckles, “it’s right there, bro. it’s a tricky one. i don’t think they can get past it.”

You take this as a cue to walk forward, and you immediately stop to examine the piece of paper. “Sans… did… did you really just print out a screenshot of some online children’s word search?” You ask, holding it up accusingly. “I’ve literally been doing these since I was a kid.” It was true, unfortunately. Toriel usually printed out some little puzzles from the internet for you to do over breakfast. It was an important part of her ‘daily training routine’ for you. You had always considered it to be the most useless thing (though you still did them every day without fail), but it seemed that, against all odds, it actually came in handy. “But really. You didn’t even bother to crop this. I can see your browser and everything.” 

Upon closer examination, you could read the various tabs he had open. Among the more interesting captions were “1001 Best Puns,” a google search for “Spaghetti Stain Removal,” and most interestingly, “The Many-Worlds Theory.” It also appeared that he had printed this approximately _four minutes ago_.

“SANS!! OH MY GOD!! AT LEAST PUT A LITTLE EFFORT INTO THIS!!”

You squint at the word jumble one last time. In the few seconds you spent analyzing it, you had actually found all but one of the words. Ah! There! You found it! ….Wait. _No._ Arguably the longest, most difficult nonsense word in the entire jumble couldn’t be found. Instead the closest match to it was off by… _a single letter._ “Oh my god Sans.” You mutter.

“WHAT?? WHAT DID HE DO??”

Sans begins to laugh manically. 

“You… you photoshopped this so it couldn’t be solved. Oh my god. What a dick move.” If Toriel were here, she’d probably wash your mouth out with soap. She wasn’t exactly the most ‘hip’ mother. “You absolute _bonehead_.”

You set the puzzle back down where you found it and come face to face with Papyrus. He’s roughly a head taller, though you’re about the same height as Sans. He actually appears pretty intimidating up close.

“SANS, THAT PUZZLE, NO MATTER WHAT SORCERY YOU USED ON IT, DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!!”

“my bad. i guess i should have used today’s crossword instead.”

“WHAT?? CROSSWORD?? I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’D EVEN SAY THAT. EVERYONE KNOWS THAT JUNIOR JUMBLE IS WAY HARDER!”

“dude, really? that easy peasy word scramble? it’s for baby bones!”

“UN. BELIEVABLE.” Papyrus huffs. He turns to look at you. “HUMAN, SOLVE THIS DISPUTE. WHICH ONE IS HARDER?”

You were, of course, familiar with both puzzles. Toriel had made sure of that. But as you look from Sans to Papyrus, you can’t help but root for the taller skeleton. “Junior Jumble. No question.” 

“HA! HA HA!” Papyrus is towering over his brother now, taunting in his general direction. “TRULY HUMANS MUST BE INTELLIGENT BEINGS IF THEY TOO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLE A CHALLENGE!” Sans appears to be muffling a snicker.

“sure, as long as they’re being serious,” Sans says with a wink.

“Woah there, I could never tell you guys a _fib_ ula,” you add.

Papyrus groans. “I TAKE IT ALL BACK. HUMANS ARE HOPELESS.”

After Papyrus makes his traditional exit, you stop to talk to Sans. 

“The time you’ve got on this monitor…” you frown, picking the piece of paper from earlier. “It says you printed this out only a few minutes ago. But… you were talking to me then. How could you have…?”

“frisk,” he said with a wink. “i gotta pa _tell_ a ya… sometimes you just have to accept a bit of mystery in your life.” He shrugs with his hands in his pockets. “but i do like ya, pal. so maybe i’ll let you in on my secret sometime later.”

“Oh? Is that a promise?” You retort. By this point you were practically dying to hear a real explanation for the skeleton’s seeming ability to manipulate space (and possibly time?). 

“i don’t make promises, kid,” he sighs. “but it’s a date.”

-

There’s a _very_ out of place table set up next to the path. Was this some other kind of puzzle? You notice there’s a note resting on a container.

_“HUMAN! WHILE MY ORIGINAL PLAN WAS TO STALL YOU HERE BY TEMPTING YOU WITH SOME OF MY DELICIOUS COOKING, I HAVE REVISED IT SO THAT YOU CAN GET TO SNOWDIN IN A REASONABLE TIMEFRAME. SINCE IT IS PROBABLY BEST TO TACKLE THE REMAINING PUZZLES ON A FULL STOMACH, I HAVE PROVIDED YOU WITH A ‘TO-GO’ CONTAINER. PLEASE ENJOY. -NYEH-FULLY YOURS, PAPYRUS.”_

You pocket the note and open the white syrofoam box to find it filled to the brim with ravioli. It’s rather cold, but that’s to be expected when considering the surroundings. Unfortunately, Papyrus seemed to forget to enclose any utensils to accompany your meal.

You shrug and pick up one of the raviolis with your free hand. It doesn’t taste that bad, despite it being cold. You smile to yourself as you continue walking. Papyrus was certainly the most benevolent antagonist you could have imagined.

You run into several more resident monsters along the way (including one _very_ enthusiastic dog), and after talking them each out of a fight, you offer each one a taste of ravioli. Everyone seems to be relatively impressed by Papyrus’ cooking, and apparently you hear a rumor of him possibly becoming a chef someday. With his unbridled enthusiasm, you think he’d probably be a great guest on one of Mettaton’s cooking shows. 

While you can’t help but be a little intimidated by all the unfamiliar monsters in Snowdin, you soon learn that none of them really want to fight you anyway. Things are a lot more like the Ruins than you would’ve thought. You’re sure Toriel would be impressed by your progress.

The next monsters you run into are a pair of unusually dressed dogs. They’re wearing long black robes and carrying some wicked looking axes. They immediately surround and start to sniff you with an unmatched intensity. Right when you’re preparing yourself for a fight, they stop.

“Dogamy… this… smells a lot like Sans,” one of the dogs says, scratching the top of their head. You freeze. Sans’ jacket. Of course! You were still wearing it, so they must’ve been picking up his scent instead of yours. Now, what skeletons actually smell like is a whole different matter- one that you weren’t exactly sure how to even approach.

“I have to agree with you, Dogaressa. It’s definitely him,” the other replies. “But didn’t we just run into him a few minutes ago?”

“He’s always jumping around the place.” Dogaressa whines. “Sans, you gotta stop fooling everyone like that! Especially Doggo- you know how he gets.”

Oh dear, you were sure they expected you to say something in return now… but as Sans. You clear your throat and manage to give off a noncommittal grunt in a deep voice. They seem to accept this as a valid response and wave you off. Man, this jacket was helping you out in more ways than one.

There’s a few more puzzles again, and for once you run into Papyrus _sans_ Sans. He immediately wants to know what you thought of his cooking, and you happily show him the empty container. “I really liked it, Papyrus,” You say with a small bow. “A few of the other locals enjoyed it too. You’re pretty popular around here, huh?”

If someone had asked you if skeletons could blush a few days ago, you would have told them definitely not. Yet here was Papyrus, clearly proving you wrong. There was a noticeable tinge to his bony cheeks. “WOWIE!” He exclaims. “I’M SO GLAD YOU LIKED IT! I DON’T OFTEN GET TO COOK FOR ANYONE OTHER THAN SANS. AND IT WAS A NEW RECIPE TOO!!” He runs off before you have time to ask him about the newest set of puzzles. But, luckily enough for you, he’s managed to leave a rather detailed set of notes explaining how it all works. The pressure plate and switch system reminds you of the locks at home.

The next puzzle looks a bit… off. If you squint you can almost make out some sort of design from the placement of the pressure plates. Almost on cue, Papyrus appears and declares, “AH YES, HUMAN, I SEE YOU’RE ADMIRING MY ARTISTIC SKILLS! WHILE YOU WERE SOLVING THE LAST FEW PUZZLES, I DECIDED TO SPICE THIS ONE UP BY MAKING IT IN THE SHAPE OF MY FACE!” He pauses before adding, “HOWEVER, SOME OF THE SNOW GOT STUCK AND… NOW THE SOLUTION IS DIFFERENT. AND OF COURSE MY LAZYBONES BROTHER ISN’T HERE TO HELP AS USUAL. I HONESTLY DON’T KNOW HOW SANS WOULD SURVIVE WITHOUT ME TAKING CARE OF HIM.”

“Hey, it’s alright! I’m sure if we work together, we can solve it in a jiffy!” Your suggestion leads to Papyrus absolutely beaming.

“WHAT A WONDERFUL SUGGESTION! WITH OUR TWO MINDS ON THE ISSUE, THERE’S NO WAY WE WILL LOSE!” 

The two of you begin to assault the puzzle with a variety of strategies, from jumping over the large blocks of snow to double-and-triple-backing over your steps. But, sure enough, after a little while all the plates have been triggered correctly. You both place a hand on the switch and push it down together. You end the whole ordeal with a high-five and a few well-placed words of encouragement.

As you’re leaving the area together, Papyrus turns to you. “THAT WAS MOST EXCELLENT, HUMAN! IN FACT, WE DIDN’T EVEN NEED TO USE THE EMERGENCY SHUT-DOWN SWITCH I HAD INSTALLED!” You’re too busy enjoying the moment to let that last statement bother you. Or that’s at least what you tell yourself. “BESIDES, IT’S BECOME CLEAR YOU HAVE AN INTENSE LOVE FOR PUZZLES, JUST AS I DO!”

“Well, of course!” You reply happily. “What’s a good adventure without some puzzles? Though, you could definitely be making these harder. I think these might be a bit too _freeze-y_ for me.”

“I THINK THAT JACKET’S INFECTED YOU WITH SANS’ HORRIBLE PUNS.” You can’t help but laugh as Papyrus speeds off, no doubt to set up the next puzzle. You’re impressed by your progress so far. While you were starting to get rather tired, you were certain that Snowdin had to be near. Sans seems to appear next to you almost instantly as you’re walking, and you jump back in surprise. 

“Sans!! Don’t scare me like that!” You yell, allowing yourself a brief shudder. 

“i guess you could say i scared the _hail_ out of you?” 

“Wow. That one was really horrible,” you roll your eyes. “Where were you on the last few puzzles?” 

“why? it didn’t seem like you needed my help! which is great, by the way. because i love doing absolutely nothing.” He pats you on the back. “well, I gotta go check on papyrus for the next puzzle. i’ll see you in about twenty seconds,” he grins before turning around and walking off in the opposite direction. You don’t even bother looking back for him, because you know he’s not going to be anywhere in sight. 

There’s a sort-of cave up ahead, but you don’t hesitate to enter it. The path goes through there, so you know it has to be safe. You mean, except for the fact that it’s a dark, mysterious cave probably filled with sentient skeletons and various traps. But besides that, it’s totally cool. 

And yep. Sans is standing next to Papyrus once you get inside. He’d better hold good to his word about telling you how he does that. 

There appears to be some strange tiles on the floor inside, all of them look deactivated. Papyrus stands gallantly next to some old machine, as if posing for your benefit. When he catches your eye, he drives a finger heroically into the air with a “HUMAN! YOU WILL LOVE THIS PUZZLE, I AM SURE OF IT!” You giggle a bit at his antics, and Papyrus is practically feeding off of it. “IT WAS DESIGNED BY NONE OTHER THAN THE FAMOUS DR. ALPHYS!” That name certainly seemed familiar to you, but you weren’t sure why… Maybe you had read about them in the news sometime? “ONCE I THROW THIS SWITCH, THEY WILL BEGIN TO CHANGE COLOR! AND EACH COLOR HAS A DIFFERENT FUNCTION!” It’s at this point when Papyrus begins to explain what each tile color does, and even though you’re doing your best to take mental notes of it all, you end up horribly confused. 

“WELL, HUMAN? ARE YOU READY?” 

“Er… can I get you to repeat that, actually?” You ask, sheepishly mixing up whether it’s the green or the pink tiles that summon a monster. Or was that the red? Nevertheless, Papyrus seems just as confused as you. His repeat explanation, more than not, blatantly contradicts his earlier rendition of the rules. 

Finally, after about the fourth try at deciphering the colors, Papyrus throws his hands (and the instructions) into the air. “YOU KNOW WHAT, HUMAN? THIS PUZZLE IS TOO COMPLICATED ANYWAY. WE CAN COME BACK TO IT LATER,” he suggests. 

“That sounds like a great idea, Papyrus,” you chime in. Even with Papyrus’ earlier string of relatively easy puzzles, this one didn’t sound like it’d be a walk in the park. You’re more than happy to bypass it. 

After exiting the cave, you find a series of snow sculptures, each one more elaborate than the next. A local monster informs you some sort of dog had been sculpting like a madman for the last hour or so, before finally giving up as his creations became… unstable. You consider stopping to make a sculpture of your own, but the pressingly late hour steers you away. For now. Snowmen weren’t something you ever had the opportunity to create before now but you knew it was a necessary element of a normal childhood, so you felt the need to make up for lost time. 

There’s another puzzle along your way, and your feet are definitely starting to ache after all this walking. Your shoes were too flimsy to keep out all the snow and consequently your toes are getting number by the minute. You had to be close. But before you could get too optimistic, a figure rises from a poff of snow. 

It’s by far, the biggest dog you’ve ever seen. 

But, as it turns out, all he wants is a bit of TLC, and after a thorough session of playing fetch and giving it scratches, he was ready to lay down his weapons (a flaw that most of the guard seemed to have around these parts. You’re beginning to doubt the judgment of the hiring staff that refused to admit Papyrus but allowed a bunch of easily-distracted dogs to join). 

There! You could just barely make out the shining lights of Snowdin from the foggy landscape. You breathe a sigh of relief, which came out as a fine mist into the air. All that was left was to cross the last bridge! 

You’re roughly halfway across before you notice who’s standing at the other end. 

“HUMAN! THIS IS YOUR FINAL AND MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE!” Papyrus declares, shouting into the growing wind. Your hair is being blown all over the place, and several strands get into your mouth and eyes. “BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!” 

You look around and… there doesn’t seem to be anything. But sure enough, a few seconds later, several dangerous looking weapons descend from… the sky? Some of the more notable obstacles included: a flamethrower, a cannon, some swinging spears, and… a dog. 

“W-WHEN I SAY THE WORD, IT W-WILL F-FULLY ACTIVATE! C-CANNONS WILL FIRE! SPIKES W-WILL SWING! B-BLADES WILL SLICE!” Papyrus seems to be visibly upset at this point, stumbling over his own words. Sans looks over at his brother sympathetically. “TH-THERE WILL ONLY BE A TINY CH-CHANCE FOR VICTORY, HUMAN!” You could see his bones shaking from several feet away. “ARE YOU R-READY?? BECAUSE… I! AM! G-GOING! TO! ACT-ACTIVATE IT!” There’s only a brief pause before he begins to break down into tears. 

“NO! I C-CAN’T DO THIS!!” 

Sans steps closer to him, gently placing a hand on his back. The two of them have their backs to you, but you can still hear them talking. “what’s wrong, pap?” 

“I… I JUST CAN’T DO THIS TO THE HUMAN! T-THEY COULD GET SERIOUSLY HURT! I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’D DO IF THEY GOT HURT BECAUSE OF ME… I CARE ABOUT THEM TOO MUCH FOR THAT.” 

The gauntlet is unmoving, and you carefully dodge the floating spears to walk over to where the skeletons were standing at the other end of the bridge. 

“Hey, Papyrus,” you say softly with a smile. He turns around to face you. “It’s alright. I’m glad you care about me. I care about you too. You’re a good friend,” you add sincerely. 

“R-REALLY?” His face lights up. “I-I’M YOUR FRIEND?" 

“Oh yeah, totally. Who else cooks me ravioli or solves puzzles with me? Of course you’re my friend!” 

Tears are forming in Papyrus’ eyesockets and before you know it, he’s running off, Sans close behind him. Before they’re out of sight, Sans gives you a hurried smile. 

You’re standing alone at the end of the bridge. Snowdin awaits. With a determined breath, you walk into the city. 


	6. Snowdin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so a few notes before we begin our next installment! First being, I did some rough story-plotting and... well there's going to be a lot more chapters. At the current rate I'm going, there will be a minimum of 19 more, and I'm pretty sure I'll add a few extra things in as time progresses. So... I hope you guys brought your seatbelts and are ready for a real ride. Second, I'm posting this just a few minutes before Jessica Jones premiers on Netflix (!!!) so hopefully there won't be too many things I missed in editing. Finally, THANK YOU ALL so much! The responses I've been getting are making me blush/get emotional/aaaah!

You had read every book in Toriel’s library. Twice. Including the dictionary. You were pertinaciously precocious, if you had to say so yourself. One of your favorite books was a detailed guide on the various regions of the Underground. You remember reading about Snowdin dreamily while sitting by the fire. The book had always described it as a _“modest, small town with a lot of charm.”_ But as you’re standing at the welcome sign, Snowdin seems to stretch on forever.

The Ruins really had been small, you’re starting to realize. You had never understood what Toriel had meant whenever she called it so. But you’d done more walking today just to get to Snowdin than it took to cross the entire expanse of the Ruins! 

You immediately spot the local inn and stumble inside. You aren’t even paying attention to what the owner is saying to you, but you vaguely recollect paying her before slogging up the stairs and into the bedroom. You don’t even bother turning on the lights to get settled. Instead you throw your satchel to the ground and collapse on the bed with a comfortable sigh. It takes mere seconds for you to fall asleep.

You have no idea how much time has passed when you wake up. You stretch and your muscles ache. For once, your covers are still on top of you. It’s been a while since you’ve had a solid night’s sleep like this. No dreams to make you toss and turn.

Curtains are drawn over the window, and you drowsily slide them open. Light floods the room and instinct has you quickly covering your eyes with your arms. While in the Ruins the artificial light had seemed rather dim, here it truly glowed like the sun.

Your stomach growls. Time to get some food. While you still had some things tucked away from home, you were really starting to crave something fresh. Though you’d need to stock up additional provisions for the rest of your trip. You weren’t sure when you’d head out of Snowdin, but you definitely wanted to set some time away to explore.

With a frown, you realize that you likely aren’t looking to be an attractive figure at the moment. Your hair was in a messy bedhead, there was dried drool on your cheek, and you had worn the same clothes to bed as you had worn all day adventuring yesterday.

As you’re walking out of the inn, you ask the hostess if there’s a shop you could buy some new clothes at, and she directs you to the closest building by the inn. As soon as you step outside, you’re hit with a cold gust of wind and you shiver. You hadn’t realized just how warm and cozy your lodgings had been until now…

However, after you get used to the initial shock, you find it to actually be quite nice outside. You hadn’t noticed really any of the town last night due to your exhaustion, so now you can appreciate the full beauty of Snowdin.

The town was laid out around one main street, though one side was mostly just pine trees with an occasional cottage dotting the way. Buildings were made with tan wood and red bricks, and every roof had a delicate poof of snow on top. The light of the Underground’s ceiling made the snow sparkle in a magical way. Villagers had hung colored lights and wreaths on every surface possible. It made it all feel so warm, even despite the cold.

You reach the small shopfront and knock on the shutters. A young bunny comes to the window and greets you. “What can I do for you?” She asks.

“I was wondering if you had some warmer clothes?” You ask. She glances at your outfit and clicks her tongue.

“Of course, of course. I’m surprised you haven’t frozen to death already! I’ve got a good pair of pants that should fit you well, and a few spare shirts.” She starts to walk to the back of the shop, but you stop her.

“-Er, could you also get me another jacket? I’m kind of… borrowing this from a friend.” The shopkeeper’s eyes widen for a second, then she nods with a knowing smile. You immediately start blushing, stammering, “no, no it’s not like that-” but she’s gone before you have the time to explain yourself further. 

She returns a minute later with a small bundle. “Anything else you’d like?” You’re struck by an intense smell of cinnamon and your stomach growls.

“Actually… What’s that smell?” 

“Ah! That’d be the next batch of cinnamon bunnies. I make them myself!” She explains with a grin, and you proceed to order one. The final cost is a small handful of gold that seems a bit too low. You’re sure she’s cut you a bit of a discount. 

She hands you a cinnamon bunny- cinnabunny, you dub them- wrapped in a napkin, and it’s still piping hot from the oven. You take a bite, and despite it stinging your tongue, it’s delicious. “This is great!” You exclaim, and the shopkeeper smiles.

“Thank you. I’ve been making them for as long as I can remember. It’s my mother’s own recipe. She used to run the place before she passed the shop down to me,” the shopkeeper says. “She went off with my brother to explore. She always wanted to travel, but I’ve been more than happy living here. My aunt still works at the Inn next door.” The shopkeeper shrugs, starting to eat one of the cinnabunnies. “So where are you from? We never get visitors here.”

“The Ruins, actually,” you say a bit sheepishly. 

“What??” She drops the cinnabunny on the counter. Powdered sugar goes flying. “No one comes from the Ruins! It’s been sealed shut for as long as anyone can remember! Only ghosts ever come from there…” she whispers, suddenly in awe. You can tell she took a moment to consider if you actually could have been a ghost.

“I’m not joking. I lived there for most of my life. The door just opens from the inside.” You don’t really know what else to say. You knew that the Ruins only had the one exit, but you never really stopped to consider what everyone else on the outside must think of it. Perhaps you’d better come up with a cover story to lessen any suspicion that the monsters might start to get. That being said, they seemed to accept you, and no one had even mentioned your human-like appearance… except Sans. The extreme variation in monster physiology combined with the fact that no one had actually seen a real human before had really worked out in your favor.

“Man. I always wondered what it’s like back there. You know all the monsters originated from there, back when we were first banished from the Aboveground…” The shopkeeper says wistfully. 

“Hey, I was wondering what sort of stuff I should do while I’m here,” you inquire. “Since I’ve never been to Snowdin before.”

The shopkeeper laughs. “Well you certainly picked a pretty dull place for a vacation! Things are pretty quiet here. Some people find it boring, but I think there’s a few charming things about it. If you stay long enough, you’ll be here in time for the present exchange in a week! It’s one of our biggest celebrations! Besides that, Snowdin’s most interesting attractions are those two skeletons! But by the looks of it, you’ve already met them,” she adds with a giggle.

You decide to part ways before the gossip and eyebrow raising gets too much to bear. After you change clothes, you take the time to speak to a few of the villagers, and they seem content. There’s a restaurant near the center of the town called Grillby’s. You make a mental note to go there for dinner later tonight. 

You pass through a side street where dozens of houses lay in neatly arranged rows. So many monsters lived here… It was almost overwhelming compared to the Ruins. And you didn’t even want to consider how many that must live in the Capital. 

There’s a river bank close by and you stop for a second to appreciate the tranquility of it all. 

_Crap._

_Toriel._

You had been so tired you had completely forgotten to call her when you got to Snowdin! Oh, she’d be worried sick. You hastily pull out your phone and press the number one on the speed-dial.

Toriel picks up immediately.

“Hey, mom!” You say with cautious enthusiasm.

“Oh, Frisk! Thank goodness you’re alright! When you didn’t call last night I thought you might have caught a cold or fell in a ditch or-”

“No, I’m fine, really mom! I was just super tired and conked out as soon as I got to the inn here,” you explain. She already seems calmer. “I know you get worried about me, but we both know I can handle a bit of independence now and then.”

“You’re right dear.” Toriel sighs. “But I’m not worried about _you_ at all.”

“You mean the whole human soul thing, don’t you?” You ask quietly, kicking the snow underfoot.

She’s silent. “I…”

“-You wanted to protect me,” you say, sympathy in your voice. “I understand. And it’s not like I gave you a lot of warning before I left. It’s just… I don’t know-” you ramble, pacing around the clearing. The stream babbles to itself, only raising its volume when two chunks of ice hit one another amidst the current. “…I was just raised my entire life believing that all monsters were good, and that I just needed to be their friend and everything would be okay…”

“And has any monster proved you wrong so far?” Toriel questioned. It almost felt like it was an accusation, but not one directed at you.

“Well, no. But it’s not the one’s I’ve met that I’m worried about.”

“Don’t you worry about Asgore, my child,” Toriel says sternly. “He won’t cause you any trouble.”

“But don’t you see? There’s gotta be monsters out there who will want my soul more than they are willing to spare my life. I guess that’s just what I worry.”

“Oh Frisk… you’re the most determined child I know,” Toriel said gently. You could almost feel her tenderly patting you on the head through the phone. “And I have every confidence in you that you can talk even the most violent monster into being your friend. You’ve got such a caring heart, and such a clever mind. And you are strong, Frisk. Don’t forget.”

“I-I won’t, mom.” You take in a few deep breaths, unsure of what to say next. Toriel, though she had always kept you restricted to the safety of the Ruins, never failed to tell you about your many strengths. 

You want to explore the town some more, but you also don’t want to say goodbye quite yet. “Snowdin’s a lovely town,” is the first thing that comes to mind.

“Yeah, I guess it’s pretty _cool_.” Well Toriel was clearly already in a better mood. 

“A _hail_ of a place to live though, with this weather,” you rebut.

Toriel gasps. “Frisk, when did you start using that sort of language?” Alright, you’d admit it, sometimes when Toriel thought you were asleep, you’d sneak near the living room and listen to her cook or tend the fire. There were a few occasions when she’d let a swear slip out, if a spark went errant or the like. Though you never dared to repeat them in conversation around her, simply because the first time you did she washed your mouth out with soap. Ten year old you had practically been scarred for life. 

“I heard that joke from one of my new friends, mom,” you reply evenly.

“Well he sounds like a bad influence,” she retorts and you think she’s being funny, but you can’t entirely tell. “Well I won’t keep you from your adventure any longer, dear. Please stay safe, and try not to forget to call.”

“Of course not, mom. I’ll talk to you later. Love you!”

“Love you too.” Click.

-

Snowdin seemed even lot nicer once you had actual pants on. Or at least it seemed a lot less cold. As you walk through the town, you overhear several monsters talking about Papyrus. Their varying accounts all agreed on one thing: he was currently standing outside the town, as if he were waiting for someone.

You knew who.

You really had hoped that his earlier breakdown meant he would give up trying to capture you for good, but Papyrus had already proved his dedication. You figure you won’t leave him out there for too long, but you wanted to finish exploring the town first. You know, on the off chance that you actually _did_ get captured.

You’re walking down the street when a building catches your eye. A library!! Or was it a… Librarby? How strange. You step inside, greeted by a rush of warm air and the smell of old books. The librarian is a kindly old lizard with large spectacles. “Welcome,” he bobs his head. “Haven’t seen you around before.”

“No, I’m… passing through, actually,” you say awkwardly.

At a table across the room, a figure shoots up. “You’re new!” a monster declares. “This is some real news right here!” They beam, pulling out a notebook and pen. “You’ve got to let me interview you! There’s never any news in Snowdin, y’see. It might be fun to have a real article every once and a while. The last big story was months ago when Lesser Dog entered an art competition…”

“Er… maybe later?” You reply with a slight grimace. You weren’t exactly looking to have your life story published for all to see. Not that there was anything else much to say besides ‘I’m a human, please don’t kill me and steal my soul.’

“Alright,” they frown. “But you better mean it.”

You take the next hour to peruse through some of the library’s collection in relative silence. The group of monsters at the table are talking amongst themselves, mostly about crosswords and the like. Ah yes, puzzles really were everywhere. You sit down after awhile to read one book that caught your eye- a book about magic and monster souls. 

“Just so you know, you’ll still need a library card to check out any books,” the librarian hums, flipping through a book of his own. You nod. It wouldn’t do you any good to check something out if you were just going to leave town in a day and quite possibly never come back.

The thought strikes you in full force. Never coming back. Your eyes widen. If your quest really was successful, you’d never return to the Underground. You’d never see Toriel again. Or Sans or Papyrus. Or any of the monsters you’d met so far. You felt almost horrified.

You couldn’t stop your quest now. You were far too invested in the idea. But perhaps… you’d slow a bit down. Take things in. Enjoy the rest of the time you could while you were here.

One step at a time. You pick yourself up and fill out the paperwork for a library card. A few minutes and one trip to the laminator later, you’ve got a shiny piece of plastic that entitled you to some temporary book ownership. You check out the book. The librarian informs you that you’ve got it for the next week.

A week sounds like a perfectly reasonable amount of time to spend in Snowdin, you think. You would be able to go back and explore the surrounding area, perhaps make a few snowmen, and Sans could take you up on that date. Well, it wasn’t a real date. It was a meeting for the sole purpose of attaining information. That… still felt weird to think about.

You walk out of the library just in time to run straight into a monster. They trip over you and fall down to the ground in a clamor. You hurriedly bend over to help them up. “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry,” you hurriedly stammer. You’re about to grab one of their arms before you realize they don’t actually have any. You immediately feel even worse. You settle for lifting them up by the shoulder area instead. 

They look up at you with a smile, “Hey, no problem. I’m a klutz anyway.” You notice they’ve got a few bandaids on their face and you assume they’re telling the truth. Or at least this isn’t their first time meeting gravity in a very personal way. 

“I’m Frisk. And I’m still sorry,” you admit.

“Heya Frisk. You can just call me Kid. Everyone does,” the monster shrugged. Kid was a bit shorter than you with yellow scales and spikes running down the back of their head down towards their tail. “I’m not even a kid anymore, but I really don’t mind. Wait… are you a kid? You’re wearing a striped shirt but you seem at least as old as me.” 

You glance down at the clothes you were wearing. The winter coat you had just recently bought was unzipped, and Sans’ jacket was layered underneath, but sure enough, you could see the pattern of the shirt you were wearing was indeed a striped one. You’d never thought anything of wearing striped shirts. Were they childish? You hadn’t exactly been the most in the loop about fashion, but still… Oh dear. Did everyone think you were a kid??

“No, I’m an adult,” you frown, taking a certain level of pride in the statement.

“Right, of course,” they nod in agreement. “So you’re new around here… I’ll bet you came to see Undyne, right?” They ask the last part with a considerable amount of excitement.

“I’m really just out to see the whole Underground,” you explain. “I mean, I’m meeting a lot of people on the way though.”

“Ah man, I hope you get to meet Undyne. I’ve run into her a few times before. She’s so cool. Though I haven’t seen her a lot in the last few years. She used to visit Snowdin almost every day as a regular part of her patrols, but now she only comes maybe once a week,” they say with a sigh. “But I know I’ll get my chance to impress her soon! Maybe then she’ll train me!”

“Train you?” You ask. “Like to be a part of the Royal Guard?”

“Whatever it takes! I’d join a thousand Royal Guards to be honest, just to spend some time with her.” You pause for a second. You can’t imagine it’d be easy for Kid to get into the Royal Guard with their seeming habit of falling down all the time. And the whole lack of arms thing. Though, what did you know? Maybe that was more desirable, since it’d help save on armor costs!

“Hey, I know what you’re thinking,” Kid says, shuffling their feet. They exhale then look up at you with a resolute expression. “I’ve been working on the whole arm thing. Watch!” They shut their eyes tightly, and when they opened them, a flash of magic swirled around their chest. Where their shoulders had once been empty, there were now two small, arm-like projections. “Heh, pretty neat, huh?”

“Thats… that’s incredible!” You grin. Kid flexed their new arms, small ripples of yellow magic streaming across their surface like the texture of water.

“I’m still working on them, but I’m sure once I show Undyne what I can do, she’ll have to let me in!” They shake their head and the arms disappear just as suddenly as they had arrived. “Well, maybe I’ll catch you around later, Frisk?” 

“Yeah, sounds good, Kid,” you say with a wave. They walk off towards the suburbs, and you can’t help but watch them for a few minutes to make sure they don’t fall again. 

The next house you pass is probably the most eccentric one in all of Snowdin. You really didn’t have to guess who lived there. Christmas lights didn’t just decorate this house, they were practically a part of it. Every possible alcove, nook, and cranny had been festivitized. A skull and crossbones flag flew over the roof. You consider knocking on the door to see if anyone’s home, but you remember that Papyrus is still waiting outside the town for you.

Well, it was time to go check up on him.


	7. Bonetrousle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! I've been super busy during break! Hopefully there's not too many mistakes in this chapter, since I was unable to do final edits! As always, thanks everyone!!

Oh god, you couldn’t see a thing. As soon as you had left Snowdin, the surrounding area had suddenly been masked in a flurry of snow and fog. You could only vaguely see your outstretched hand in front of you. Was Papyrus really out here? And did he really want to fight you in the midst of this mess?? Well one thing was for sure, you were really glad you had bought a new jacket.

You blink a few times, whisking away some flakes of snow from your eyelashes. You squint and can just barely make out a dark figure ahead. That had to be him. You take a few determined steps forward until the snow comes up to your knee.

“HUMAN.” 

You sigh. It was Papyrus. You had still hoped that it’d all be a misunderstanding and that he’d let you walk free… No, wait… There was still hope! You were sure that if you could just talk to him, he’d understand.

“Papyrus-” you start to speak up, but he immediately interrupts you.

“-HUMAN, PLEASE DO NOT MAKE THIS HARDER ON ME THAN IT ALREADY IS.” Papyrus is maintaining a several foot gap between the two of you. You consider stepping forward, but you’re certain that if you did, it’d only escalate the impending battle.

“…THE FEELING OF FINDING SOMEONE WHO NOT ONLY HAS A LOVE FOR SPAGHETTI, BUT SOMEONE WHO CHERISHES PUZZLES AND FRIENDSHIP… SOMEONE WHO IS NOT ONLY COOL, BUT WHO THINKS YOU ARE COOL AS WELL. I CAN ONLY IMAGINE THAT’S WHAT YOU’RE FEELING RIGHT NOW… AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT,” Papyrus holds his posture straight. He seems stiff and uncomfortable. “AND I ADMIT, I’VE FELT MUCH THE SAME WAY AS YOU. BUT AS A FUTURE ROYAL GUARDSMAN, I HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY: TO CAPTURE HUMANS AND DELIVER THEM TO THE CAPITAL. NO MATTER _WHAT_ I FEEL ABOUT IT. I CANNOT MAKE FRIENDS WITH YOU. I AM SORRY, HUMAN.”

He pauses, and you scramble for something to say while you have the chance. “I… Papyrus…-”

“-THIS IS HOW IT MUST BE. I ONLY HOPE YOU CAN FORGIVE ME.”

And with that, you feel your soul being pulled from your body. That red, floating heart seems more vulnerable now than it ever had before. You reassure yourself that Papyrus doesn’t want to hurt you, just capture you. And Sans’ words that his brother is harmless echo through your ears. Where was he, anyway? You still wore his jacket underneath yours.

The fog clears, likely swept away by Papyrus’ magic. You can see him more clearly now. While earlier he had appeared flustered, now he seemed more confident. “PREPARE YOURSELF,” He challenged, and you ready your stance.

Your mind immediately prepares you to dodge his attacks, but… they’re harmless. The bones he sends flying your way are low to the ground, and miss you by a long shot. By the time his attack is done, you haven’t even moved. Was he going easy on you after all?

It’s your turn to do something, _say_ something, before he launches his next attack. “Papyrus, listen!” You shout. “I don’t want to fight you. I really, _really_ like you and I think you’re super cool and-”

Papyrus’ jaw nearly drops. “A-ARE YOU FLIRTING WITH ME, HUMAN??” He sounds flabbergasted. “I GUESS THAT EXPLAINS THINGS…” 

You immediately blush, “I-I meant that-” you stammer, trying to clarify what you had blurted out before, but it was no use. 

“YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS ARE REVEALED… WELL DON’T THINK THAT CHANGES ANYTHING! I STILL HAVE TO CAPTURE YOU.” He frowns briefly. “BUT MAYBE AFTERWARDS WE CAN … GO ON A …DATE?”

You honestly have no idea what to say. You mean, you really do like hanging out with Papyrus, but you’ve never even _flirted_ with someone before, much less gone on any dates. Did you even want to go on a date with Papyrus? Well, right now you mostly just wanted to stop fighting. But, you shrug, a date with him could be fun.

Papyrus clears his throat. “NOW THAT THAT’S BEEN SETTLED… IT’S YOUR MOVE.”

Oh right. Battle. You clench your fists tightly and do the only thing that you can- what Toriel had been teaching you to do since you first fell down in the Ruins- you refuse to fight. You glance at Papyrus warily, waiting to see his reaction.

“Y-YOU WON’T FIGHT THEN, HUH?” He says, perhaps a little less resolutely than he had originally intended. “WELL THEN, LET’S SEE HOW YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED ‘BLUE ATTACK.’”

Okay, this was your time to shine. Sans had warned you, and you had successfully gotten out of several fights by mastering how to act around blue attacks. You could handle this, no sweat.

Papyrus sends out a series of light blue bones, and you plant your feet and soul in one spot, unflinching for them all. You can’t help but think to yourself that it’s probably good that Papyrus isn’t in the Royal Guard. His attacks weren’t all that powerful. He’d be ripped to shreds.

But then you feel the weight of the world crash upon you. Your head suddenly aches with a dull thump as your soul comes crashing to the ground. Worried, you glance over at it. Instead of its usual vibrant red, it’s a deep indigo blue.

A small bone comes at you from nowhere, but you’ve suddenly lost the ability to fly around it. The bone crashes into you and your chest hurts accordingly.

“YOU’RE BLUE NOW,” Papyrus grins. “THAT’S MY ATTACK.” He laughs in the same way he had been yesterday, but this time, with very good reason.

You suddenly have a bad feeling about this.

It’s your turn again and you continue to show mercy. Papyrus shakes his head. “I WOULD FEEL A LOT BETTER ABOUT THIS IF YOU WERE TO PUT UP SOME SORT OF FIGHT, HUMAN,” He said with a concerned look. 

“I’ve been trying to tell you that I don’t want to fight you this whole time, Papyrus!” You plead. 

He looks away. A few seconds later he calls out a new attack. It was similar to his first one, but with your heart in its current state, it proved a much more difficult challenge. You found that you could jump if you tried, but gravity would inevitably pull you back down within a few seconds.

You kept up as best as you could, round after round. Papyrus was uncharacteristically silent, even with you trying to talk to him at every chance. Several times there were bones you just couldn’t dodge and your side was starting to hurt like mad. You were beginning to take a real beating.

There’s a lull in the fighting, and for the first time in several minutes, Papyrus speaks up. “CAN’T YOU SEE THAT THE ONLY WAY FOR ME TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD IS TO FIGHT YOU? I WOULDN’T DO IT IF I HAD ANOTHER WAY.” You exhale deeply, wiping the sweat from your brow.

There had to be something you hadn’t thought of. Something that could persuade him… “Papyrus… you said if you captured me, I’d be sent to the Capital, right?” You ask.

“THAT’S CORRECT.”

“Well, I don’t think I ever told you, but that’s actually where I’m planning on going,” you say with a hopeful smile. “I mean, do you really even need to capture me? I’ll get there soon enough if you just let me go.”

He considers this for a second. “YOU’RE REALLY GOING TO THE CAPITAL?”

“To see King Asgore himself.”

“HMM… IT COULD WORK… BUT… WHAT IF SOMETHING HAPPENED TO YOU ALONG THE WAY? IF I JUST CAPTURED YOU, I COULD MAKE SURE YOU GOT THERE SAFELY,” Papyrus replied.

“I appreciate you want to take care of me, Pap,” you say gently. “And maybe you could help me out. But I don’t want to be captured if I can help it. I want to be able to explore along the way. And meet more cool monsters, though I doubt I can find any cooler than you.” 

Papyrus blushes and mumbles something about your upcoming date. “ALRIGHT, HERE’S MY CONDITION: IF YOU CAN SUCCESSFULLY AVOID MY SPECIAL ATTACK, I’LL KNOW YOU’RE STRONG ENOUGH TO GET TO THE CAPITAL ON YOUR OWN. THEN, ONCE YOU’RE THERE, YOU CAN PUT IN A GOOD WORD TO KING ASGORE FOR ME,” he concludes. You’re more than happy to agree to his terms.

“ALRIGHT THEN!! HERE IT COMES!” A series of bones flies at you, and you’ve managed to get somewhat of a hang on how blue-hearts work. Right when you’re expecting his ultimate move however, all you see is a small, fluffy dog chewing happily on a bone.

“WHAT THE-?? LET GO OF MY SPECIAL ATTACK!” Papyrus yells, waving his arms around to try and scare off the canine. The dog’s eyes widen and it scurries away- still carrying Papyrus’ attack. “COME BACK HERE!” But the dog ignores him.

You give Papyrus a sympathetic look.

“I’LL, ER, JUST GIVE YOU A NORMAL ATTACK INSTEAD…” He mumbles.

The battle is finally over, and you’re out of breath and low on health. Your soul finds its place back inside of you once again, and you take a deep breath. You take a few, stumbling steps towards Papyrus, and the only thing keeping you from falling flat on your face is the sheer depth of the snow you’re in.

Papyrus notices your struggle and comes to meet you. You collapse into his arms. He carefully picks you up, and you lock your arms around his neck. “HUMAN, YOU ARE INJURED…” Papyrus says. “I’LL TAKE YOU BACK TO MY HOUSE TO GET YOU PATCHED UP.” 

You close your eyes for a brief second, and when you open them again, you’re laying on a couch with a blanket tucked around you. You raise up your arm and notice that every scrape, cut, and even bruise has been covered with a band-aid. The band-aids have smiley faces on them. Not as some printed-on pattern, as one might expect, but each individual bandaid has been customized with a blue glitter gel pen.

You stretch out your arms and your entire body is sore. _Ugh._ All the jumping and falling from while your soul was blue had apparently taken its toll on you. You can’t help but feel impressed from Papyrus’ skill. And now a part of you still wonders if he was taking it easy on you…

“HUMAN! YOU’RE AWAKE!” Papyrus exclaims, popping his head out from the kitchen. He strides over towards you, taking a seat at the end of the couch. Your legs aren’t very long, so they even don’t use up the entire sofa’s length. “I AM GLAD YOU ARE ALRIGHT. WHEN YOU FELL ASLEEP I WAS AFRAID YOU WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED.”

“No… No I’m fine. Thank you, Papyrus. I guess I just had a busy day,” you reply, scratching the back of your head. “Did you make all these bandaids?”

He smiles. “INDEED I DID! SANS AND I DON’T NEED BANDAGES BECAUSE WE ARE SKELETONS AND THEREFORE CANNOT BLEED…” He pauses for a brief moment, as if to make sure you understood his point. “BUT LUCKILY THE STORE IN TOWN HAD SOME. BUT THEY WERE VERY BORING, SO I ADDED ON SOME SMILEY FACES TO ENCOURAGE YOU.” You laugh, giving one of them an affectionate pat.

“Thanks, Pap. I love them!”

“I WANTED TO SAY, HUMAN, YOU ARE MORE THAN WELCOME TO STAY HERE AT OUR HOUSE FOR AS LONG AS YOU NEED,” Papyrus says suddenly. “THIS COUCH IS ALL YOURS IF YOU WANT IT. AND WE HAVE PLENTY OF SPAGHETTI FOR YOU TO EAT WHENEVER YOU’D LIKE.” He gestures towards the kitchen, where you can smell the distinct aroma of tomato sauce.

“I-I think I’ll take you up on that offer. At least for a few more days,” you say. Your original plan of spending a week in Snowdin is really coming to fruition! And not to mention your battle with Papyrus is already out of the way! Things are looking up at last.

“I BETTER GO TAKE CARE OF THE SPAGHETTI BEFORE IT BURNS…” Papyrus frowns. “BUT I WILL BRING YOU A PLATE ONCE IT IS FINISHED. YOU WILL NEED TO EAT TO REGAIN YOUR STRENGTH.”

A few minutes pass, and you’re relatively settled on the couch, when the front door opens. Sans walks through the doorway and gives you a glance, your presence giving him the slightest shock, just enough that the lights in his eyes widen slightly.

“oh, hey frisk,” he says nonchalantly. “you staying with us for a few days?”

“Uh… yeah,” you squint. “I just, er… battled your brother.”

“Did he capture you?” Sans takes up the spot on the couch that his brother had just vacated. He looks at the bandaids covering your arms (and face) and chuckles to himself.

“I don’t look very captured, do I?” You ask with a bit of a laugh yourself. “No, we called it quits after a little while.”

“THE HUMAN IS GOING TO THE CAPITAL ANYWAY, SANS,” Papyrus shouts from the kitchen. “I DON’T REALLY NEED TO CAPTURE THEM. IT WORKS OUT PRETTY WELL.”

“that’s good to hear,” Sans says, propping his legs up on the coffee table. “and i’m glad frisk isn’t too badly hurt, bro, or else i would have had to give you a _sternum_ talking to.”

“SANS!! CAN’T YOU SEE THE HUMAN IS _ALREADY_ FEELING BAD WITHOUT THE USE OF YOUR HORRIBLE PUNS!!” 

“It’s alright, Pap. I wouldn’t want things to be too _bone_ dry around here anyway,” you reply with a snicker.

“oh man kid, that was pretty bad for you. you sure you’re not delirious with a _femur_?” 

There is increased groaning from the kitchen. “KEEP THIS UP AND NEITHER OF YOU WILL BE GETTING YOUR PASTA FOR DINNER.”

“sounds fine to me. i was going to grillby’s anyway. you wanna come, frisk?” Sans asks, turning to look at you.

“What about Papyrus?”

“he’s not really a fan of grillby’s.”

Papyrus pokes his head out from the kitchen, and you catch a glimpse of an apron that he had just put on. It’s yellow and appears to be hand-crafted, with the words “HIGH-FIVE THE COOK” sewn on it. “MY BROTHER IS CORRECT. I DO NOT CARE FOR GRILLBY’S. IT IS DARK AND FULL OF GREASE.”

“well you wanna come?” Sans says to you, and Papyrus rolls his eyes.

“I’ve been wanting to try it out since I got to Snowdin, so sounds good to me! Plus you promised me that date,” you reply.

“WAIT A SECOND. HUMAN… YOU’RE GOING ON _DATES_ WITH SANS?? I THOUGHT _WE_ WERE GOING ON A DATE!!” Papyrus leans out of the kitchen, eyes wide with shock, betrayal evident in his voice.

“woah, bro. don’t worry. you should know grillby’s can’t even constitute as a real date. besides, with frisk gone, you’ll be able to work out your spectacular date plan for later.” What Sans says seems to cool his brother down, and Papyrus nods seriously before turning his attention back to his cooking.

“shall we?” Sans asks, getting off of the couch and extending you a hand. He helps pull you up and you shake out your legs. There’s even more bandaids around your legs. You notice your jacket (and Sans’ consequently) folded neatly on the coffee table. Papyrus was too sweet for this world. You pick both up, tossing Sans’ jacket towards him. He catches it and slides it on.

He walks with you outside and towards Grillby’s. It’s about as dark as the Underground can manage to get around nighttime. You had probably been conked out on the couch for a few hours at least. Before you walk into the restaurant, Sans turns to you, his skeletal hand still resting on the doorknob.

“ _so_ … you’re going on a date with papyrus?” he asks. His tone is impossible to decipher. You can’t tell if he’s mad or happy or jealous or what. His eyes appear hallow when you glance at him, and it startles you to the point of jumping.

“Er, yeah,” you manage to squeak out. “I-is that okay?”

Sans suddenly laughs, giving your shoulder a pat. “that’s _snow_ problem to me, frisk. papyrus can make his own decisions. i guess it just caught me by surprise… he’s never dated anyone before.”

“Well, it just kinda happened. I was trying to talk him out of fighting me, and he thought I was flirting and well… yeah. Now we’re going on a date, I guess…”

He pauses for a brief moment. “so you _don’t_ want to date my brother?” Now his tone is a lot easier to read: Sans isn’t very pleased. Something blue flashes in one of his eyes. “it’s some _pity_ thing to you?”

“It’s not that- I mean, he’s so fun to be around… I just didn’t- I, er-” you’re sufficiently flustered now. “It just wasn’t what I was originally intending. B-but now that it’s happening, I’m sure we’ll have a fantastic time out. I… I don’t want to hurt your brother, Sans. We’ll just hang out for a while. I… I haven’t exactly been on any dates either…”

His expression softens. “I’m just giving you a hard time, kid. I don’t want my brother getting hurt.” He exhales and opens the door at last, flooding your chilled body with warm air. As you step inside, he taps you on the shoulder one last time. “You’ve never been on a date?” He snickers.

“I guess this would actually be my first one, _Sansy_ ,” you retort. “So you better make it a good one.”

“mhmm,” he replies, and you catch him briefly rolling his eyes with a grin.

The patrons in Grillby’s are largely familiar. Dogamy and Dogaressa are sipping drinks at a table with Greater Dog and Doggo. Doggo’s working on a large piece of gum, while Greater Dog just seems to be enjoying the environment (and smell of hamburgers). Lesser Dog is engaged in a game of poker, presumably against itself. There are a few other monsters inside, who you don’t recognize. But they all recognize Sans- when the two of you enter the restaurant, there’s a happy chorus of “hey Sans!” echoing around the room. One of the monsters sitting at a booth even calls him Sansy. You feel an unusual spark of jealousy that you’re not the only one to think of the embarrassing nickname.

The restaurant itself is comfortable. The lights are soft and bathe the whole room in a red glow. A jukebox is settled in the corner, playing old songs that remind you of some of the tunes Toriel would play on the record back home. 

Sans leads you up towards the bar at the back of the building. A monster, Grillby, perhaps?, is cleaning off a glass with a cloth. He’s entirely made of fire, except for a pair of thin-rimmed glasses on his face and the suit he’s wearing. 

You arrive at the barstools, but before you sit down, you cautiously lift up the padded part of your seat. Sure enough there’s a whoopie cushion placed underneath it. You pick it up before sitting down. 

“be careful, there’s some weirdo who sometimes puts whoopie cush-” Sans turns to look at you and sees the whoopie cushion in your hand, still inflated. His smile cracks a bit wider. “touche, kid.”

“Hey, I don’t like it when someone tries to make an ass out of me,” you say, dissolving into laughter, unable to keep your voice straight. Sans starts laughing with you, and the whole bar gets a bit quieter to see what’s so funny.

When your giggles finally abate, Grillby asks what you’d like to eat. You turn to Sans for advice, and he points out the burger and fries from the menu. “Is this the greasiest?” you ask with a mischievous smile. “I’d only like to try the greasiest food in what’s been called the greasiest establishment here in the dark, greasy Underground.”

“the hamburger will not disappoint you,” Sans says with a chuckle. “grillby, two burgers and fries please.” Grillby flickers in acknowledgment and heads towards the kitchen to turn in the orders. “so, other than managing to get a date with papyrus, how did the fight with my brother go? the blue stop signs tip help?” Sans asks, tapping the tips of his finger bones on the bar countertop.

“Oh yeah, your tip totally helped. Helped throw me off,” you reply, shaking your head. A smidge of bitterness escaped in your voice. “His actual blue attack had _nothing_ to do with standing still!”

“heh. he’s good, isn’t he? he’d be even better if he stopped going easy on people.” Sans confirmed what you had suspected. Figures. If Papyrus had come at you with his full strength, it’s likely you’d be dead and/or captured right now.

“Hm… If the other monsters in the Underground are as tough as Papyrus, I don’t know how I’ll fare…” you admit. “I highly doubt anyone else will be as nice or understanding as your brother.”

“you’re entirely correct.”

The blunt way Sans says this makes your heart sink. “Gee thanks, I’m ready to go now.”

“but you really do need to give yourself some more credit, frisk.” Sans replies softly. “i think you’ll surprise yourself. plus, if you’re really nervous, i’ll help you practice while you’re here.”

“R-really?” You’re once again surprised by the skeleton. “But why? What’s in it for you? I mean, you’re a pretty laid-back guy. I don’t understand why’d you’d put in the effort.”

“i have my reasons. maybe i’ll tell you them later.”

“Woah, woah. No you don’t,” you laugh. “You said that about the whole teleportation thing. You can’t keep postponing your answers like that! Speaking of which, you better start dishing about how you do that exactly.”

“Oh look, here’s the food,” Sans says, gesturing towards the kitchen door, where Grillby is arriving with their dinner. How convenient.

You each have your plates set in front of you, and you begin eating hungrily. You didn’t realize just how starving you were until you ate the first french fry. Sans offers you ketchup, but when you turn him down, he merely shrugs and drinks the whole thing. Your eye twitches. He seems amused. 

You’re roughly halfway through your burger when Sans clears his throat. “oh yeah. i wanted to ask you something.” You make a vague noise of agreement, your mouth still full of food. “have you ever heard of… a talking flower?”

Your eyes widen and you’re suddenly choking on your food.

You cough it up within a few seconds and the whole bar is quickly asking if you’re alright. You reassure everyone you’re fine before turning back to Sans. 

“A talking flower,” you repeat. “…I’ve been seeing a talking flower in my dreams almost every night for the last ten years.” Your voice is a low growl, and you feel the need to conceal this conversation from the rest of the bar patrons. 

Sans appears concerned. “the echo flower? Have you ever even seen one? they’re all over the marsh, but i didn’t think there were any in the ruins…”

“An echo flower?” you repeat. “No, I don’t think that’s what this is.”

“oh so a _different_ talking flower.”

“Woah there, don’t you look at me like that! This is literally a realm of magic and monsters, it’s entirely plausible there are other kinds of talking flowers than echo flowers,” you glance at him, narrowing your eyes. 

“well I’m just asking because… someone’s been pranking papyrus with them. he told me a while ago that sometimes when he’s all alone, a flower comes out and whispers things to him. flattery… advice… encouragement…. _predictions._ " Your entire body shivers. No, what Sans was talking about couldn’t be anything but Flowey the Flower. That thing had been haunting your dreams with its little ‘insights’ of the future for years. “it’s the weirdest thing. someone has to be playing a trick on him. just… keep an eye out, ok? and let me know if you have any more of those dreams, just in case.”

“…Sans…” you murmur. “-That flower… that flower I see… it’s _evil_. If it’s the same thing Papyrus is seeing… I’d be really concerned.”

He turns back to his food without saying a word. You go back to yours. You finally finish your burger and Sans jumps off his chair. 

“grillby, you can put it on my tab,” he says with a wave. Grillby is silent. You’re quite sure Sans’ tab must be nigh astronomical.

You follow Sans back to the house, where he heads upstairs to his room.

You settle down on the couch, draping your jacket back on the coffee table. You rest your head on the pillow and stare at the ceiling for a little while before finally drifting off to sleep…


	8. A Date

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh, I originally planned for like three more major plot elements to happen in this chapter, but I kinda got really caught up in the date? I added a Reader/Papyrus tag, mainly for what happens in this chapter, though I can't promise that it'll stay this way forever! Just enjoy the ride, I suppose! Also, NEXT chapter I will be bumping the rating up to T for some violent elements and for some language that will appear in later chapters. Alright, now that housekeeping's done- enjoy the chapter!

You’re woken by the smell of cooking spaghetti sauce. As soon as you stir, Papyrus is upon you, handing you a tray of steaming fresh pasta. You sit up on the couch and thank him, grabbing some utensils (thank goodness he had some provided this time). You take a few bites and it’s pretty good stuff. Papyrus seems pleased.

The tray in question is made of a cheery red plastic with handles on the side. Papyrus has not only given you pasta, but put a small vase with a flower on top of it, as well as a hearty glass of milk. You assumed it was to give you strong bones.

“HOW ARE YOU FEELING THIS MORNING, HUMAN?” He asks, once you’ve finished your plate. You can tell he’s been up for a while, probably waiting the whole time for you to finally stir. In fact, you weren’t even sure if Papyrus even slept. After all, hadn’t he chastised Sans for ‘napping all night’ before? He seemed healthy enough though, so you weren’t about to criticize him. “ARE YOUR WOUNDS HEALING? DO I NEED TO GET MORE BANDAIDS?”

“No, no, I’m good. Thanks Papyrus,” you say with a bit of a laugh. “You’re so good at taking care of me.”

Papyrus smiles widely. “IT IS ONE OF THE MANY SKILLS THE GREAT PAPYRUS PRIDES HIMSELF ON,” he exclaims. “AND IF YOU ARE TRULY FEELING BETTER, THEN PERHAPS LATER TODAY I CAN TAKE YOU ON THAT DATE YOU WERE SO EAGER TO HAVE! I HAVE METICULOUSLY PLANNED A SCHEDULE OF EVENTS SO IT WILL BE THE MOST INCREDIBLE DATE YOU HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED. IT WILL CERTAINLY BE MUCH BETTER THAN THE ‘DATE’ YOU WENT ON WITH SANS LAST NIGHT.”

“Don’t worry about that, Pap. Between you and me, Sans is kind of a lousy dater,” you wink. And it was pretty much true. You get the sinking feeling that the trip to Grillbys was offered only so Sans could _grill_ you for information. And with a start, you realize that he hadn’t even told you his teleportation secret like he had promised! You had been so caught up in the moment that you hadn’t even realized. You’d be sure to confront him about it later. That was, if he wasn’t still upset from what you had said last night. You look over at Papyrus. Had Flowey really been talking to him? If so, you couldn’t picture him being mean to Papyrus. The skeleton was far too innocent and kind, even when considering such a diabolical flower.

“I AM NOT SURPRISED, HUMAN. HE IS VERY LAZY.” 

You had to admit it, you were still feeling a bit perturbed from last night’s dinner. The silence between you and Sans hadn’t been awkward… it had been downright _antagonistic._ Or at least that’s how it had felt to you. Sans… he had you convinced that he knew what was going on, but his ignorance of Flowey gave you chills.

“Does he usually sleep in?” You ask, gesturing towards his room. It was closed shut, but you could see some kind of magical energy swirling beneath the door. Add it to the ongoing tally of the mysteries of Sans. The list was already dauntingly long.

“SANS ALMOST NEVER SLEEPS IN,” Papyrus says and you’re thrown off guard. That didn’t seem to fit in with the whole ‘lazy’ thing… “HIS PATROL STARTS AT DAWN AND HE NEVER MISSES A CHECK IN WITH ME.” You’re just about to ask for clarification when Papyrus continues, “BUT, AS A TESTAMENT TO HIS EVERLASTING LAZINESS, HE THEN IMMEDIATELY BEGINS HIS SHIFT WITH A NAP. AND THEN A BREAK FOR BREAKFAST… AND BRUNCH…” Papyrus sighs deeply. “MY BROTHER IS REALLY HOPELESS.”

“Hey, it’s good he has someone like you to watch out for him,” you shrug, twirling some leftover spaghetti noodles on your fork. 

“I EVEN HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF HIS PET ROCK,” Papyrus rolls his eyes, pointing towards a table near the entryway. There’s a rock sitting on top of it, roughly the size of two of your fists. It’s got googley eyes pasted on to it and appears to be covered in a thick layer of sprinkles and glitter. There are a series of post it notes spilling from the wall to the table around it. “THERE HAVE BEEN SOME REAL CLOSE CALLS WITH THAT THING. BUT IT’S BEEN SANS’ LOYAL PET FOR TEN YEARS AT LEAST.”

You begin to sit up, and Papyrus takes the tray from your lap. Several layers of blankets fall to the floor as you stretch your arms and legs. You stop to fold the quilts into a somewhat organized lump. You knew Papyrus would appreciate the attempt. He seemed to be a neat-freak.

Your eye is immediately drawn to the wall near the kitchen, where there’s a tower of sticky notes that goes all the way from the floorboards to the ceiling. It seems to be a continued correspondence from Sans and Papyrus that they’d never bothered to clean up. At this point, it could probably be entered as a historical monument. The notes down near the bottom all have to do with socks, but your eye catches a glimpse of some higher notes and all you can decipher are hastily scribbled puns and threats to kick Sans out of the house.

You peak your head into the kitchen where Papyrus is now scrubbing at some dirty dishes. The sink he’s using is incredibly tall, but luckily there’s a nice sized stepladder next to it. Papyrus catches you eying the cabinetry. 

“IT IS MY OWN DESIGN,” he says, waggling his eyebrow-like skull protrusions. “IT’S REALLY HELPED WITH MY BONE STORAGE CONCERNS… BUT I’M AFRAID IT’S ONLY ENCOURAGED SANS TO DO LESS OF HIS CHORES.”

You snicker, completely unsurprised. “So, Pap… Could you give me a hint of our date plans for later? I only ask because I assume you’re going to be even better at dating than you are at puzzles,” you tease. The feeling in your gut has you completely excited for the occasion, if perhaps a bit nervous. You tell yourself you shouldn’t be. It’s Papyrus. Sure, you’ve only known him for what, three? days in your entire life, but he’s not exactly a monster of mystery. Like Sans is. 

He’s blushing when he turns to look at you. “I CAN’T REVEAL THE ENTIRETY OF MY MASTER PLAN TO YOU YET... BUT WE CAN START THE DATE WHENEVER YOU’D LIKE!” 

“Alright, I guess I’ll go get ready then,” you smile. You hustle back to the living room where you dig through your bag for some… cleaner clothes. You’ve got some extra from the shopkeeper. You manage to change clothes, wash your face, and comb through your hair with your fingers before returning to Papyrus. He’s standing by the front door, hands on his hips, gazing gallantly into the middle distance, when you arrive.

“AH YES, ARE YOU READY, HUMAN?”

“Yeah, let’s do it! But, er, Papyrus… please call me Frisk! I mean… if we’re going to be going on a date, you probably shouldn’t just be calling me human,” you add, biting your lip.

“THAT SEEMS REASONABLE, HU-I MEAN, FRISK!” The way he says your name is almost comical, he’s ever so slightly rolling the ‘r.’ You hold in a laugh, doing your best to encourage the new usage of your name with a smile. “FIRST WE WILL BE ADVENTURING OUTDOORS!!” He holds out his arm for you to grab, and you take hold of it as he leads you outside. It’s cold, but you don’t really notice.

You walk with him outside Snowdin to one of the nearby ice fields. The cavernous sky is clear of fog for once, and you can see the brilliant white orbs of light that are hovering hundreds of feet in the air above you. The snow is crisp under your boots, and just high enough that you have to pick up your knees more than usual.

Papyrus stops once you’ve reached the middle of the field and turns to you. “I HAVE BROUGHT YOU OUT HERE FOR ONE PURPOSE ONLY…” He pauses, as if for dramatic effect. “… TO BUILD THE WORLD’S GREATEST SNOW SCULPTURES!!”

How did he know? On your journey to Snowdin you had promised yourself you’d come back out and build some snowmen, and well, here you were! Something in the back of your mind screamed ‘Sans must have been watching me’ but you were more than happy to accept it as Papyrus’ brilliant and totally independent idea. It was far simpler, and far less creepy. 

“I IMAGINED THAT SINCE YOU ARE NOT FROM SNOWDIN THAT YOU MAY NOT HAVE EXPERIENCED THE GREAT JOYS OF SNOW SCULPTING BEFORE! BUT DO NOT FEAR FOR YOUR LACKING AND UNPRACTICED SKILL- I AM QUITE THE MASTER SCULPTOR, SO I SHALL BE ABLE TO ASSIST YOU AS NEEDED!” Papyrus proclaims. Master sculptor, huh? You suddenly get a devious idea.

You quickly ball up some snow in your hand and throw it at him. It hits him, quite unawares, on the chestplate of his battle armor.

You strike a valiant pose. “Oh ho, the greatest snow artist you may be, but you’re one very susceptible to sneak attacks!” You cry, forming a few backup snowballs. Whenever you were around Papyrus, you felt free to play around and be as overdramatic as you liked. He was genuinely fun to be around. For a brief moment, you wonder if this was what it was like to have friends (who weren’t your mom).

“SO THAT’S HOW IT’S GOING TO BE, EH?” Papyrus retorts. “THEN I SHALL SHOW YOU NO MERCY-”

“Don’t you mean you’ll _snow_ me no mercy-” you chime in, unable to resist the opportunity for a good pun.

“PREPARE FOR WAR!!!”

You chuck your makeshift stash of snowballs at the skeleton before making a hasty retreat several yards away. You push up snow to form a shallow wall for you to duck behind and catch your breath. There’s a constant onslaught of snowballs coming at you, and you pack as much snow as you can to form your own arsenal for retaliation.

You shoot up from behind your wall to take aim, only to find a nigh impenetrable fortress standing across the way. Papyrus stands, perhaps six feet above the ground, on one of the walls. “NYEH HEH HEH,” he declares. “BEST OF LUCK BRINGING DOWN MY CASTLE!” 

You resist the urge to make a pun about ‘kicking his buttress’ and instead hit him in the face with a snowball. “You gotta stop being so distracted, Pap! It’s far too easy to hit you!” 

“OH REALLY? HOW ABOUT NOW?” 

Papyrus flicks back his wrists and the snowball you had just thrown falls down to the ground, as if gravity took a sudden hammer to it. Your mouth drops open. “Oh no fair! No using magic to win snowball fights!”

“IS THAT IN THE OFFICIAL SNOWBALL FIGHT RULEBOOK?” He grins.

You narrow your eyes. It was on. 

-

It was a long and difficult battle. After about thirty minutes of some of the most intense ‘fighting’ in your life, you call a truce. Papyrus graciously accepts your surrender. You have the feeling he’s not going to let you live down your defeat for a while.

“You know what this hallowed battleground needs?” you ask, the two of you laying collapsed in the snow in between your two forts.

“WHAT WOULD THAT BE?”

“A monument.” 

Papyrus’ head shoots up excitedly at your words. “TO COMMEMORATE OUR BATTLE! OF COURSE!” He exclaims. He gives you a helping hand up and the two of you discuss a few possibilities before rolling out several large snowball bases. You settle on a snowy recreation of the two of you in dramatic poses.

Your hands are freezing cold from handling all the snow and you temporarily shove them into your jacket pockets.

“FRISK, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?” Papyrus asks, shifting his gaze from his work to look at you with concern.

“I-I’m fine,” your teeth chatter. “My hands are just frozen solid. Give them a minute to warm up.”

“UNACCEPTABLE! I CAN’T HAVE YOU FEELING UNCOMFORTABLE ON A DATE WITH ME!” Papyrus frowns. He pulls off his large red gloves and hands them to you. “THIS SHOULD HELP.” You take the gloves from them and slip them on. They’re considerably too large for your rather small hands. But they’re better than nothing, so you thank Papyrus warmly.

You get back to work on your snow sculpture, which you believe to be coming along nicely. You’re busy capturing the intricacies of your nose when you peek over at Papyrus’. It’s like a Michaelangelo. And not just because he portrayed himself as unrealistically muscular. It’s so intricate that it almost brings your eyes to (frozen) tears. When you look back at your sculpture, it suddenly seems incredibly childish.

“Papyrus how did you get so good at this?” You ask as your snowy double’s left ear falls off.

“THE SAME WAY I GET GOOD AT EVERYTHING ELSE,” Papyrus replies simply. “LOTS OF PRACTICE. AND PROBABLY SOME NATURAL TALENT. AFTER ALL, I AM PRETTY GREAT.”

He adds a finishing touch to his snow sculpture and slides over to where you are. Papyrus deftly begins to shape your hair into a more realistic portrayal of yourself. After a minute, you let him take over completely, scooting back to better admire his craftsmanship.

Papyrus finishes and joins you a few feet away. You both admire the sculptures for a little while before you inevitably burst out into laughter. “Oh man… This is so great. Thanks, Pap,” you say, your voice still prone to chuckling.

“I AM GLAD YOU ENJOYED IT SO MUCH,” Papyrus beamed. “NOW FOR THE SECOND PART OF OUR DATE… FOLLOW ME!” 

Instead of heading back to town, Papyrus lead you further away. You couldn’t help but shiver a little, and hope that you’d go somewhere warmer soon. Perhaps that was the real downside of dating a skeleton: they didn’t really have any idea about the human’s range of ideal temperatures.

You stop at a small grouping of trees, that you recognize as being near where the nice cream man had been stationed before. He wasn’t here anymore, you realized. You only hoped that meant he found a somewhat warmer shopfront to work at. And you could admit, you felt a little too cold to want to eat any nice cream now.

Papyrus slipped behind the trees for a second, and when he reappeared he was holding a picnic basket. Your eyes light up in happy surprise. He really had thought this through! He pulled out two thermoses from inside the basket and handed you one. 

However, where your hands should have felt warmth from the drink, it was still as cold as the air around it. You turn to your date. “Papyrus, I think it’s gone cold,” you frown, unable to totally hide your disappointment at the promise of a hot drink.

His smile faltered. “OH RIGHT. I DID SET THESE OUT LAST NIGHT…” Placing his free hand on his hip, he began to think out loud. “I THINK I SHOULD BE ABLE TO WARM THEM UP WITH SOME MAGIC,” he finally stated. 

You glance down at your thermos. It was smooth and made out of a shiny metal casing. You gave it one last squeeze, but instead of feeling a hollow chill like you expected, there was a sudden blossom of warmth in your grasp. “Pap… did you just heat it up?” You ask.

He raised one eyebrow. “NO…? I WOULD HAVE TO BE HOLDING IT TO WARM IT UP. LIKE THIS,” He gestured towards his own thermos, which was now starting to glow orange. 

But then how did your mug…? 

It reminded you of what Toriel would do, sometimes. If you were taking too long to get to dinner and arrived when it was cold, she’d warm it up for you with magic. But there was no way Toriel was here now… was there? Another thought occurred to you, deep in your mind. Maybe you had done it. With magic. Yeah, it seemed ridiculous when you thought about it. 

No matter how it happened, you were glad it did. You took a quick sip from your thermos. The drink proved to be delicious hot chocolate. “Mm, this is great,” you smile, wiping your lip to make sure there wasn’t a hot-chocolate-mustache on it. “Thanks, Pap!”

“YOU ARE QUITE WELCOME, FRISK!” Papyrus replied happily. He loved it when you praised him or gave him any sort of thanks. You couldn’t help but blush a little too. He was so sincere all the time.

“I THOUGHT, SINCE WE WERE HERE, THAT YOU MIGHT LIKE TO PLAY A ROUSING GAME OF SNOWBALL GOLF!” 

You turn around and, sure enough, there was a golf course behind you. You hadn’t noticed it on your walk to Snowdin before, you had been so determined to get to shelter.

While Sans was the embodiment of laziness, Papyrus was his opposite. He took every opportunity to do something fun and active. You were surprised by the boundless amount of energy that he seemed to posses, and how willing he was to spend that energy on others. 

“Alright, but you’re going to have to show me how!” You laugh. “Yet another Snowdin custom I’ve never tried.”

Papyrus sets his thermos down on the snowy ground, jogging over to where the snowball lay at the beginning of the course. “I’M SURE YOU’LL GET THE HANG OF IT QUICKLY ENOUGH!” He waggled his hips before giving the snowball a hearty kick. It went flying in the air down the course, until it hit one of the bordering walls, sending it in the opposite direction. 

“This isn’t golf…” you mutter. “It’s soccer.” You stifle a giggle before running to catch up with your date, who was racing down the field as fast as he could, the ball just a few feet before him. While he wasn’t the most accurate when it came to aiming for the hole, he certainly had the enthusiasm needed to eventually get it right. You clap and cheer once he finally succeeds.

“YOUR TURN NOW!” Papyrus declares. “THAT IS, IF YOU’RE UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF BEATING MY RECORD!” You crack your knuckles. It was on. 

Papyrus stops you to give you the occasional tip, which, after a few games, leads to the defeat of his record. But he doesn’t seem disturbed, instead he merely grins widely. “I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT, FRISK! VERY WELL DONE!” 

You link arms as Papyrus walks you towards Snowdin. You rest your head into the space just below his shoulder. He seems a bit startled by the gesture at first, but soon settles into a relaxed walking pace.

You’ve spent almost four hours running around the countryside with Papyrus and you’re beginning to feel a bit tired. You wouldn’t mind just relaxing for the rest of the afternoon with him. ‘Pulling a Sans’ you’d call it. 

When you get back to the house, he offers you a seat on the couch while he goes to heat up some lunch. It’s pasta, of course, but this time it’s in a white, garlicy sauce. Fancy, you think.

You ask Papyrus about his daily routine, before you showed up. He tells you it was mostly the same thing day after day. He’d go out, recalibrate his puzzles, patrol the border around the Ruins and Waterfall, talk to some of the townsfolk, cook spaghetti, occasionally get a few hours of sleep… You think of how every monster in the Underground seems to stick to their same old habits, day after day. Toriel’s life was dramatically changed when you arrived, she told you once. That you had shifted her priorities and routines… And here you were now, stirring things up for a pair of skeletons.

Humans really did have a way of messing things up, you guess.

After you finish your lunch, Papyrus takes your plate to the kitchen. “I FIGURED YOU WOULD LIKELY WANT TO REST AFTER OUR EARLIER DATE ACTIVITIES, SO I HAVE RECORDED SEVERAL OF MY FAVORITE MTT ENTERTAINMENT EPISODES FOR US TO WATCH!” Papyrus yells from the kitchen. You smile. “AND IF THERE’S ANYTHING ELSE YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO, JUST LET ME KNOW.”

He joins you shortly, placing a disc into the TV’s movie player. It seems Papyrus has selected a variety of cooking shows for you two to watch. Even though you were hardly the best chef, you didn’t mind tuning in. Besides, the best part of watching TV with Papyrus was simply to watch Papyrus. His expressions everytime Mettaton revealed a secret ingredient or technique were priceless. 

After a few episodes, the door opens and Sans walks in. He turns to look at the two of you sitting on the couch. You had sunk into the couches deeper folds and were resting comfortably. Meanwhile, Papyrus was at the edge of his seat, eagerly watching the screen. Sans snickers. “good date?” He mouths. You nod. He's showing no sign of being disturbed from your conversation together last night. Part of you is relieved. Part of you is still worried. If not about Sans, than about Papyrus.

Sans situates himself on the furthest end of the couch. “hey bro,” he says, flicking his feet up on the coffee table. Papyrus’ attention is temporarily drawn away from the TV to return his brother’s greeting.

“GOOD TO SEE YOU SANS! HOW WAS YOUR DAY OF WORK?”

“nothing special to report,” Sans replies lazily. You wonder how many time’s he’s said the exact same thing.


End file.
